Lewis Hamilton had a late night partying with Diplo in Las Vegas to celebrate the megastar music producer's birthday.
The Briton spent several hours in the DJ booth with the award-winning musician at the XS nightclub at which Diplo is a resident artist. That's how Hamilton chose to spend the night, having earlier taken part in the launch event for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Next year will mark the first Formula 1 race held in the city since the ill-fated Caesars Palace Grand Prix. That event was held in the early 1980s in the car park of the famous hotel and casino, but was scrapped after just two years.
The modern version of the race will be held partly on the famous Las Vegas Strip, which is where the launch event was held on Saturday. It was after that when Hamilton linked up with his friend Diplo at the nightclub to party into the small hours.
Hamilton was taking notes from the producer in the DJ booth, as Diplo hyped up the crowd. "Hey Las Vegas, I'll DJ back-to-back with Lewis Hamilton all night long," he shouted at one point, before it was the racer's turn to play the role of hypeman – he was regularly shouting "let's go" and "are you ready?" as the artist took care of the music.
Hamilton then took part as Diplo, who turns 44 on Thursday, was surprised with a birthday cake. They pair posed with a cake, made in the style of a record player, before the racer left the nightclub at around 2.30am.
It is not the only occasion on which Hamilton has spent time with Diplo recently. Last week, electronic music trio Major Lazer, of which the producer is a member, shared a photo on social media of the Mercedes star playing a banjo in a record studio.
"Working on new music with @MAJORLEAGUEDJZ. Who's ready to hear @LewisHamilton's banjo solo?" the tweet from the trio's official account said. While the banjo certainly appears to be a first for Hamilton, he has plenty of experience already in the music arena.
He featured on Christina Aguilera's 2018 track "Pipe" under the pseudonym XNDA, though he did not reveal it was him until two years after it was released. It was then that he also said he had been writing and recording music for the best part of a decade.
