Lewis Hamilton chooses Fernando Alonso over Max Verstappen as the toughest competitor of his career

Lewis Hamilton chooses Fernando Alonso over Max Verstappen as the toughest competitor of his career

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are widely acknowledged as two of the greats, and certainly as two of the finest drivers of their generation. The two were teammates at McLaren in 2007 in what was Lewis Hamilton’s debut season at McLaren, and both ended on the same amount of points, 109 each, one point behind champion Kimi Raikkonen.

Alonso has said that the pair were on much better teams after their stint at McLaren together, also adding that the two weren’t managed particularly well in their time together. Even though their relationship has cooled off recently, there is certainly mutual respect between the pair of them.

Funnily enough, both were outscored by a teammate for the first time in their career at McLaren, and by the same driver. Jenson Button outscored Alonso in 2015 during their stint at McLaren, while Button also outscored Hamilton, in 2011, when he finished second to Sebastian Vettel. Recently, as reported by Autosport, Hamilton has named Alonso as his toughest ever competitor.

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Fernando Alonso praises Lewis Hamilton: “He has been a tremendous driver.”

Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton
2007 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-22 Launch. Cuidad de las Artes y las Ciencias. Valencia, Spain. 15th January 2006 Launch of the 2007 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes MP4-22. Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso – portrait. World Copyright: LAT Photographic ref: Digital Image VMMLaunch006

On being asked about his toughest competitor, Hamilton first said that it was hard to pick someone like that, but then elaborated: “I remember the task of being alongside Fernando when I was 22. I was so young mentally and, of course, OK in terms of skill but it’s a lot of pressure to go up against a great like Fernando.”

Hamilton hopes to continue racing with Alonso: “I would say on pure pace, Fernando [is the toughest]. We had some good battles. I wish we could have more. Hopefully, he will continue to race so hopefully, we’ll have more in the future.”

Fernando Alonso also commented that it has always been a pleasure competing against Lewis Hamilton: “I don’t think that he has changed much, to be honest. He had the talent already in 2007, he still has the talent now with experience.”

Alonso called Hamilton a ‘legend of the sport’: “He has been a tremendous driver, a legend of our sport, so it has been always a pleasure to share all this time with him. And back then probably no one thought that someone will be able to win seven titles as Michael [Schumacher]. The journey has been amazing.”

“The team that they all built in Mercedes over these years, it was outstanding. Congratulations to the 300.” The ‘300’ is in reference to Lewis Hamilton competing in his 300th Grand Prix this weekend. Recently, Fernando Alonso surpassed Kimi Raikkonen as the driver with the most Grands Prix competed in.

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