Naturally, Twitter had a lot to say about the surprising cameo from the Fresh Prince.
Fans were sour at the fact Smith hijacked a special team moment for Mercedes, marking Hamilton's fourth title in five years and the team's fifth championship in a row. One especially disgruntled fan went so far as accusing Smith of prerecording the message to play when Hamilton finally sealed the deal.
While Hamilton was celebrating the peak of his career, Daniel Ricciardo was devastated.
In another horror mechanical malfunction, the Aussie pulled up trackside after his Red Bull lost power in a plume of smoke, just 10 laps away from finishing second.
Ricciardo shocked everyone with a perfect qualifying finish to claim pole, sinking teammate Max Verstappen's charge to become the youngest man to sit atop an F1 grid.
The Perth product fought back from a slow start, reclaiming positions over Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel to slot in second before disaster struck for the eighth time this year.
It was the 11th time in 23 race the Aussie has retired from an F1 race.
"Not great," Christian Horner said. "The retirement for Daniel was absolutely gutting."
Verstappen had the last laugh in the end.
The 21-year-old blitzed the field after overtaking Ricciardo before the first turn and sat comfortably ahead of the pack for the majority of the race. A two-stop manoeuvre worked in the Dutchman's favour as he soared ahead with a lead of over 10 seconds.
Ricciardo's late engine blowout put a scare up the young Red Bull star, who began easing off his engine in the latter stages to avoid a similar fate.
But in the end, as it has been for most of the season, Verstappen's car avoided a meltdown and saw him through to his fifth Formula 1 victory.
