PEPAZZ: par highlitu z clanku
Aged 10, Hamilton became the youngest ever winner of the British cadet kart championship. That year, in 1995, he attended the Autosport Awards, the motorsport industry’s end-of-season shindig. He walked up to Ron Dennis, the boss of McLaren, introduced himself and said: “One day, I want to be racing your cars.”
Three years later, after Hamilton had won his second British kart championship, Dennis signed him up to McLaren’s driver development programme. Whitmarsh was put in charge of overseeing Hamilton’s career.
F1
Hamilton was on the podium for his first nine consecutive races, and won his seventh. The Italian media took to calling him ‘Il Fenomeno’ - the phenomenon. At McLaren, the tension was rising.
As the man who had ended Schumacher’s domination of F1 with Ferrari, Alonso had established himself as the sport’s leading driver. Although it wasn’t in his contract, the Spaniard felt his status demanded he be McLaren’s team leader and designated championship contender. Hamilton had other ideas.
At the first race of the season, Alonso qualified second and Hamilton fourth, but at the start Hamilton pulled a move that set the tone for what was to come. He passed his team-mate around the outside of the first corner and ran confidently ahead of him for two thirds of the race.
In the end, Alonso finished second behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, with Hamilton third, but the ‘kid’ had left a huge impression. And it just kept growing.
Hamilton first led the championship after the fourth race of the season, taking it away from Alonso at the Spaniard’s home grand prix. The problems that led to the team unravelling began at the next race in Monaco.
Through that long, tense summer, the advantage swung back and forth between him and Alonso, with Raikkonen and his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa also in the mix for the championship.
Adding to the pressure, the title battle took place against the political backdrop of the ‘spy-gate’ case, in which McLaren’s chief designer had been found in possession of 780 pages of confidential Ferrari technical information.
The next flashpoint was the Hungarian Grand Prix.
What was meant to happen was for Alonso to run first on track ahead of Hamilton during qualifying. McLaren had been alternating which of their drivers would benefit from a complex 2007 rule relating to fuel loads, and it was Alonso’s turn.
Instead, Hamilton went out ahead and refused repeated requests over the radio to let Alonso through. This put Alonso at a disadvantage in the fight for pole. Alonso worked out what was going on and made sure he came into the pits first before their final laps.
As Alonso’s new tyres were being fitted, Hamilton was waiting behind for his. With the work quickly finished, Alonso then held his car, having calculated how long he would need to block Hamilton to make sure he wouldn’t be able to start his final lap. When he was certain Hamilton was out of time, only then did he pull away.
All hell broke loose. Dennis threw his headphones down in disgust and went over to remonstrate with Alonso’s trainer, who he wrongly believed was involved. The drivers were called to the stewards, who also received a visit from Anthony Hamilton. Alonso was given a five-place grid penalty.