Kovalainen: Lewis has some special qualities

Of Lewis Hamilton’s 103 victories, a special place is occupied by eight, which he won at the Silverstone circuit. But as the seven-time world champion himself emphasized, the very first, dated July 6, 2008, stuck in memory more than others.

The memories of this achievement of Hamilton, who turned exactly 15 years old, shared in an interview with the official website of the championship Heikki Kovalainen, his then McLaren teammate.

“During winter testing I was a little bit behind Lewis. I remember he was always a few tenths faster, – said Heikki. “At the same time, I felt quite comfortable behind the wheel, and we knew we had a really good car and we would be competitive.

In Australia Lewis took pole but qualified third so the start wasn’t bad. I was even close to victory if the safety car hadn’t left the track at the wrong time.

After that it got a little bit worse for us, but gradually Lewis found his way into the car and I kind of lost him, but I think it was hard for me to keep up with him.

And then there was that incident in Barcelona – the left front wheel flew off my car, and it wasn’t a puncture – the lug nut wasn’t fully tightened.

I woke up in the hospital room, but gradually the memory began to return, the brain began to work again. Luckily I only had a concussion, but nothing was broken, so two weeks later I was able to get back behind the wheel and finish second in qualifying in Istanbul. In general, everything worked out.

When we got to Silverstone I was faster than Lewis at the start of the weekend. This is probably one of the few times my pace was better in all three workouts.

McLaren has had this policy since winter testing: even if the driver was faster in practice, they looked at the situation in the championship as a whole, and whoever was ahead got an advantage in qualifying – a little less fuel was used in the last session. poured into the tank of his car (in that season there was such a rule: in the qualifying final, the riders competed in cars with fuel in the tanks for the entire Grand Prix distance).

Therefore, although I was faster than Lewis all weekend, the team planned for him to have an advantage in qualifying. This resulted in a bitter dispute. My manager at the time was Flavio Briatore, and his people in the paddock were very strict with Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh and demanded that my car be lighter.

Eventually the McLaren executives relented and gave me a lighter car. But this was the first wound, which then upset our relationship.

The qualifying final was held in quite difficult conditions, there was a strong wind and many riders made mistakes. I remember when I crossed the finish line I didn’t feel like I was doing a great lap, but it turned out I won pole by half a second.

My mechanic on the radio said, “You’re on pole, and by a wide margin,” and I thought that was all rather odd. But Lewis made a mistake after the bridge section in the next left turn, at Priory. I think his car was hit by a strong gust of wind.

I remember we had no problems with Lewis, he wasn’t worried about my car being lighter, especially as I was faster that weekend. And while Martin and Ron considered him the main contender for the title, they also agreed, and in general everyone was happy.

After qualifying, McLaren managing director Jonathan Neal came up to me and said: “Okay, now you know what to do. Since we had a fight because of you, now your job is to win the race.

I realized I had no choice. But when Sunday came, it started to rain. Before the race I remember thinking about the fans gathered in the stands, and it was packed. We arrived at the starting field, left the cars there and returned to the pits ourselves. When I looked at Lewis it seemed to me that he was somehow different, not the same as in previous races.

When I think about it now, I think he was more determined than ever to win. It was his home race, his fans were in the stands, they came to the circuit to see how he performs. He probably also decided that he had to make a feat on that day.

And yet before the race I did not believe that this would cause any problems. We had a great car, I started from pole and everything was in my hands. C focused on the start, on the first corner, and I had a good chance. I wasn’t afraid of Lewis, but I could see he was determined and wanted to be the best that day.

In the beginning I started quite well, but I saw that Lewis started well and tried to attack already in the first corner. I gave him some space, but I thought we should try to hold on to the lead. There was almost no contact between our cars, but after one or two laps I felt I had problems.

Lewis was too comfortable behind the wheel, I saw him well in the mirrors and knew trouble was coming. And when he got ahead of me, the next time I saw his car, only when he overtook me in a circle!

At one point during the race it started to rain very hard and the car started to aquaplane. It was possible to drive only along the only trajectory, which was visible from the tire tracks, and it was necessary to stay on this trajectory.

I think there were a lot of drivers, not just me, trying to stay behind Lewis. I tried for a few laps, but made a few mistakes, and in the chicane before the bridge, the car completely flipped. But not only I flew off the track that day.

In general, everyone tried to stay behind Lewis’s car, but no one succeeded. At least in those circumstances his skill really showed.

After the race I analyzed the telemetry and looked at what Hamilton managed to drive so well. As it turned out, he could handle fast corners with constant throttle and braking, and his car’s front wheels provided good traction.

If this were the case with my car, the rear end would behave too unstable and it would be difficult for me to control the behavior of the car in such conditions. And he managed to take fast corners without letting go of the accelerator, even though the rear wheels were about to break off the track. And when I saw this, I realized that it is extremely difficult to achieve this.

Maybe I could try too, but I don’t know if I could stay on the track for all 50 or 60 laps – I’m not sure I could do it that many times. I think that was the difference between a driver like Lewis and someone like me…

There are many good drivers in Formula 1, but there are also very special guys like Lewis, Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, to some extent Kimi Raikkonen and Mika Hakkinen, and also Michael Schumacher. All these great masters had a number of special qualities…”