Twitter data reveals Lewis Hamilton more popular than Max Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton is the people’s choice to win the F1 Driver’s Championship according to new data from OLBG.

Hamilton is battling it out with Max Verstappen as he bids for a fifth successive title and a seventh in eight years in his Mercedes car, and will go into the final race of the season at Abu Dhabi level on points following a dramatic race in Saudi Arabia.

The two clashed physically on the track while there were heated exchanges over the radio as they fought for first place – with Hamilton coming out on top – to set up a dramatic finale, but Verstappen’s behaviour did not go down well on social media.

Data taken from Twitter has analysed the average sentiment of every tweet posted over the weekend about the two drivers, with results revealing that Hamilton is by far the more popular of the two online.

Verstappen was booed on stage when collecting his second-place trophy, and that fan sentiment has been echoed online with the Dutchman recording the second-lowest average score among all F1 drivers over the weekend, and crucially lower than Hamilton.

The Brit meanwhile was not universally popular in 14th place but evidently did not cause anywhere near as much controversy as his title rival.

Betting tipsters OLBG make Hamilton favourite to claim the title at the weekend with odds of 1-2, and have calculated a probability of 66.67% that he will emerge triumphant.

Verstappen meanwhile has odds of 6-4 and a probability of 40% of finishing ahead of his rival.

Despite a memorable season, OLBG still have Hamilton as second favourite to retain his BBC Sports Personality of the Year award, behind teenage tennis sensation Emma Radacanu.

The US Open champion is as short as 1-5 with OLBG for the prestigious award, with a probability of 83.33% on December 19, while Hamilton’s (12-1) odds could drastically shorten should he win in Abu Dhabi.

Olympic hero Tom Daley (50-1), boxing knockout Tyson Fury (100-1) and twinkle-toed Adam Peaty (151-1) are the outsiders for the annual gong.