Lewis Hamilton: Stevenage boss Dino Maamria invites F1 champion to game

Lewis Hamilton won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in 2014 and finished second in 2018

Lewis Hamilton has been "personally invited" to a Stevenage game by the League Two club's manager after the Formula 1 world champion's apology for comments about his home town.

Hamilton appeared to describe Stevenage as "the slums" at Sunday's BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards.

But Stevenage boss Dino Maamria said the town should "not be too harsh" and "be proud" of Hamilton.

"It was just the wrong choice of words I think," 47-year-old Maamria added.

"He would have known that and he apologised for it. He's proud of where he came from and his journey - he's come from a humble family and he's gone all of the way to the very top. We should be proud of him.

"He's a friend of my family, their family is friends with my wife's family. It's out of character for him to say that.

"If he can come to the Lamex Stadium for one of the games, that would be fantastic. If he wants to really say sorry about it, he should come to support us at one of the games and I invite him personally."

'Nobody's perfect'- Hamilton's apology to Stevenage

Mercedes driver Hamilton, who won his fifth F1 world title in 2018, finished second in the Sports Personality of the Year vote, behind Tour de France-winning cyclist Geraint Thomas.

In an interview during the awards ceremony in Birmingham, the 33-year-old said: "It really was a dream for us all as a family to do something different. For us to get out of the slums.

"Well, not the slums, but to get out of somewhere and do something. We all set our goals very, very high but we did it as a team."

In a video posted on Instagram, Hamilton said he "chose the wrong words" in talking about his journey to the top of his sport.

"I'm super-proud of where I've come from and I hope that you know that I represent in the best way that I can always and nobody's perfect," he said.

"I definitely make mistakes quite often and particularly when you're up in front of a crowd trying to find the right words to express the long journey that you've had in life. I chose the wrong words.

"But I didn't mean anything by it and those of you who know me know that I always mean love so God bless you. Have a great day."

Speaking in an interview posted on the club's social media channels, Maamria said: "His intention was to say 'impossible is nothing'- he came from Stevenage and has gone to the top.

"Using the word 'slum', he regretted that and apologised for that.

"We're far from that as a town, we're a proud town and we're proud of the football club. This town has produced a lot of good people; artists, pop stars, Premier League footballers. That's what's possible for the people of Stevenage."