Bearman's palm-sized spider scare left Hamilton stunned at Malaysia fan event

Ollie Bearman left Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc speechless at a Bahrain Grand Prix fan event after recounting how a palm-sized spider forced him to abandon his hotel room in Malaysia in the middle of the night.

The Haas driver, standing alongside team-mate Esteban Ocon and Ferrari’s Hamilton and Leclerc, described waking at 2am to find the creature inches from his face. “I got woken up at 2am with a spider next to my head,” Bearman said, drawing audible gasps from his colleagues. “I texted my travel team. I was like, ‘Guys, I’m moving. I’m not staying here.’”

Bearman went on to explain that he had heard the spider before he saw it. “I heard him, kind of walking up to me. I open my eyes, and he was right there,” he said. When asked about the size, he held up his hand: “It was like the size of my palm. And then I hit him away, I put the torch on, and I couldn’t find him. So when I moved to my new hotel, I haven’t opened my suitcase yet because I’m scared he’s in there.”

Leclerc’s jaw visibly dropped, while Hamilton — who has been racing in Malaysia for nearly two decades — admitted the story caught him completely off guard. “I would have been sleeping in the car!” Hamilton laughed. “I didn’t even realise that Malaysia had spiders! Oh my god, that changes everything. What?! I’ve been coming for 20 years, I didn’t know that.”

Bearman was most likely describing a huntsman spider, a species common in hotels and homes across Malaysia. Though harmless to humans, huntsman spiders are notable for their speed and their habit of moving across walls and ceilings rather than spinning webs — a detail that does little to ease the anxiety of anyone who has encountered one up close.