Lewis Hamilton Jokes About Fernando Alonso Partnering Max Verstappen

Published 08/04/2019, 3:21 PM EDT

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After a titanic battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen culminated in Hamilton winning, the congratulations began to flood in. Among them was a complimentary post-race tweet from double world champion, Fernando Alonso. When the Spaniard was brought into the conversation Lewis Hamilton cheekily suggested that he could partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull.

The former McLaren driver stepped away from Formula 1 at the end of the 2018 season. However, he has still remained in touch with the sport and praised Hamilton and Verstappen for their dogfight at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

However, for their respective teammates, the story was the complete opposite and disappointing. Valtteri Bottas’ hopes for redemption evaporated following a scruffy first lap leading to an unscheduled pit-stop. What’s worse is the fact that Mercedes boss Toto Wolff may take a call on the second Mercedes seat over the summer break.

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Meanwhile, Verstappen’s teammate Pierre Gasly was sixth and woefully off the pace yet again. While Red Bull boss Christian Horner has not openly admitted it, it is being insinuated that his seat is at risk.

Coming back to the subject of Fernando Alonso, the three podium finishers were asked if they would welcome him back to the grid. Lewis Hamilton could not resist being cheeky and suggested one ‘potential’ option for Alonso’s return.

Hamilton said, “Well, firstly that’s really awesome that he’s supportive. I was watching some of the starts of previous years and watching him in his Renault days, remembering before I got to Formula One watching how amazing their starts were… I don’t know how old Fernando is now but if he’s always going to be a great driver. If he can get a good seat he is always welcome to battle with us. It doesn’t make a difference necessarily to me, I’m here to fight whoever is here.”

Verstappen chimed in, “I think it was a bit of a shame I never had the chance to fight him in F1.”

The 5-time world champion replied, “He’d be a good teammate for you”

To which, Verstappen fired back, “You had experience with it, I don’t know.”

At that point, Sebastian Vettel did not want to be left out of the fun and jumped in, “He doesn’t want to [remember]”. It was a thinly veiled jab at Hamilton’s tenure as Alonso’s teammate.

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Hamilton continued, “Speak to Christian!”

Verstappen did not miss a beat, “Maybe he can speak to Toto [Wolff]?”

Hamilton later admitted, “Well, Valtteri’s great, Valtteri’s been winning! You’re the one with the extra seat, I would say.”

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Verstappen immediately surrendered with, “I didn’t say that!”

After the banter was exchanged, Vettel gave his thoughts on Alonso. He said, “I don’t mind — I don’t think he ever really like me, I don’t really know why! I don’t mind him, I respect him for what he achieved and what he did on track. Bring him back, I don’t mind.”

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Written by:

Dhruv George

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
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