Formula One: Damon Hill expects McLaren rivalry at Silverstone, Hamilton leads Button by 6
Former Formula one driver Damon Hill believes that, the infighting at McLaren between Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton may come to the front at the British Grand Prix this weekend.
The two British drivers are currently occupying the top 2 slots in the championship table, with Hamilton in front. Both drivers have 2 wins to their name this season and a 3rd win will be significant heading into the final third of the 2010 season.
Damon Hill said that the rivalry has been simmering for a while and may just boil over in Britain where both drivers will be doing all they can to win the home race. Hill added that there will be a fierce battle between the former and current World Champion, and the margins may be very slim in the end.
The rivalry that was termed as friendly, at the start of the season, came to the forefront at the Turkish Grand Prix. Button and Hamilton were 4th and 3rd respectively and an insane accident between the 2 Red Bulls of Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber made way for the 2 McLaren drivers to take the top 2 spots in the race.
Hamilton was then leading the race with Button on his tail. The Pit crew instructed both to take it easy and conserve fuel till the end of the race. But Button decided to take his chances and went for overtaking his team mate. Hamilton to his credit did well to once again regain the lead, and ended up winning the race. But there was a dangerous battle between the two and the British duo nearly repeated the same mistake and crashed into each other before the end of the race.
Currently Hamilton is leading Button by 6 points in the driver’s championship table. The two finished a 2nd consecutive race with 1st and 2nd spots in the Canada Grand Prix. Hill strongly believes that tension between the team mates will get more intense as the season goes on. The 1996 World Champion said that Jenson will make sure that Lewis does not get away with anything, and just as he did in Turkey, Button will pounce on the slightest of opportunity.
Hill added that when someone has the closest rival for the championship in his own team, it makes it even more difficult to outplay him as they are basically running on the same strategy. The former Birth driver added, that Lewis generally takes things as they come and can be gullible into believing that he would be able to win the championship straight forward, but on the other hand Button is much more experienced and opportunistic, he has been around for a while and is much more mature than Hamilton.
Hill believes that the rest of the season will see the rivalry develop, and it will be difficult for McLaren to make sure that they do not take any sides and aid both drivers equally.
This is not the first time McLaren will be facing the challenge of having both their drivers fight for the world title. Back in 1998 and 99 seasons there was Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna and both were fighting tooth and nail for the title.
More recently in 2007 Hamilton and Fernando Alonso also shared a love hate relationship while driving for McLaren. Alonso had made his way into the team as the 2-time World Champion, and problems between the 2 drivers ended up costing Hamilton the title by just one point as Ferrari’s Kimmi Raikkonen won the championship in the final race.
It’s up to McLaren to decide how they want to deal with the rivalry of their 2 star drivers. If they manage to do a good balancing act they may have a 2 time World Champion in the shape of Hamilton, or Button.
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