Lewis Hamilton Once Ditched His ‘Best Friend’ Sebastian Vettel Over Fernando Alonso While Filming With James Corden

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel in 2022 showed a wholesome bond. On the other hand, Fernando Alonso is the biggest nemesis of the Mercedes star. Yet, in a question by James Corden Hamilton ditched Vettel.

In an interview done around eight years ago, where James Corden only got one flying lap full of adrenaline rush to ask his all questions. In the list of multiple queries, the American TV host asked one difficult question.

Corden asked who would he choose between Alonso and Vettel. The Brit was quick to say ‘Fernando’ while ditching his best friend.

Lewis Hamilton chose Fernando Alonso without context

The more surprising part is Gorden gave no context to the answer. It could have been whether Hamilton is closer to Alonso or the Spaniard is a better competitor. Hamilton didn’t bother to ask in what sense he had to pick one.

Probably, Hamilton was busy having fun running his car at full throttle, which was clearly scaring Corden, instead of giving full attention to the questions. But at that time, Hamilton hardly had any bond with Vettel. Therefore, in terms of competition only, Hamilton would have chosen Alonso.

The seven-time world champion had a fierce rivalry with Alonso when he came as a rookie at McLaren. Meanwhile, Hamilton had strong competition for the title once Vettel went to Ferrari. In both cases, Hamilton came out as the last man standing.

When did Hamilton and Vettel become friends?

When this video came out Hamilton and Vettel were hardly friends. in fact, they created a bond much later in their career. Ironically, it was a tense moment that caused them to start understanding each other more.

In Azerbaijan Grand Prix 2017, Vettel slammed his car into Hamilton’s Mercedes, and he accused the latter of brak-testing him. But the Brit reveals this moment kicked off the time when the duo first opened a good dialogue with each other.

And with that, they started talking more and in the end became good friends. So much respect the two have for each other that Hamilton even organized a farewell dinner for Vettel to which all 20 drivers were invited.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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