Hamilton and Alonso maintain a united front

Motorsport

Hamilton (left) hopes to avoid the intense rivalry that has existed at McLaren in the past

Friday, June 29, 2007

By David Tremayne at Magny-Cours

As the world sits and waits for inter-team rivalry to tear the wheels off the McLaren machine, Lewis Hamilton admitted ahead of Sunday's French Grand Prix that he and team-mate and title rival Fernando Alonso sat down and agreed media tactics following his narrow triumph in the recent US GP at Indianapolis.

"I sat down with him in Indy and said I don't really read many newspapers or magazines and I won't take anything that's said and put it against him," Hamilton said. "I said if I have any questions I'll approach him and sit down and ask him face to face. He said the same thing to me. He doesn't read too much into it.

"That's good because you can then trust each other and rely on that respect and the relationship we have."

The intensity of McLaren's last inter-team duel, between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in the 1988 and 1989 seasons, was such that they collided in Japan and conducted their battle with complete rancour. Hamilton said that he hopes they can avoid that.

"I know it's happened in the past but I think we're too professional. We are very, very competitive, and obviously we want to beat each other more than anything. But outside of the car we respect each other.

"For sure we have to be careful. I appreciate all the support but you have the Spanish media pushing one way and you guys pushing for me another way. It's great and I love it, but then you need us drivers to keep that distance. You have to respect the Spanish media and I have to respect my team-mate. People do try stirring things, possibly to make it harder for us, but it's not working."

If anything, it is Alonso who is struggling more to cope with his upstart partner. The Spaniard denied suggestions yesterday that his unusual line past the McLaren pit during one lap of the United States GP was a petulant response to the team's refusal to make Hamilton make way for him - he sprayed team representatives on the pit wall with dust and sources inside the team insist that he was screaming commands over the radio to instruct Hamilton to move over. Recently he also said, "The championship begins here," of this weekend's race. "I love Magny-Cours, Silverstone, Nürburgring and Hungaroring and have won at all of them."

Hamilton had his own wry response. "I think the championship starts with the first race! We still have 10 races to go and it is unreal to imagine there are another 10 races and we've already had seven.

"Even though I've thoroughly enjoyed it, it feels like it has been a real long, long journey. And it has, because I started preparing in September. I believe the championship starts at the first race and it's never over until the last race."

Far from being tired by a punishing schedule, however, he insists he is fighting fit for the next four races, which will all be held on circuits with which he too is totally familiar.

"When you are away for so long then it is tiring. You maybe get a day off but that's not enough to recharge your batteries. It's been quite tiring after Indy but I've managed to be home after the Vodafone event [in London], which I enjoyed.

"I managed to get home to spend some time with my friends, some time with my family, I went to the Goodwood Festival. I've just had fun, I've really enjoyed myself and I feel like I've recharged my batteries."

He admits that Alonso's experience here might tip the balance against him, but couldn't resist adding: "But because I have more experience here [in the GP2 series], I start with a much better foundation."

The BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica, whose spectacular crash at the Canadian GP kept him out of the US GP, has been given the go-ahead by doctors to race this weekend.