Credits: IMAGO/ Motorsport Images

Lewis Hamilton has had an illustrious Formula 1 career. He has raced with some of the sport’s toughest competitors and cultivated a good relationship with several fellow drivers and teammates. One of them is his old McLaren teammate, Heikki Kovalainen, whom he reached out to and wished a speedy recovery.

Advertisement

The Finnish racing driver has recently undergone open-heart surgery and is now recuperating at home. Reacting to his update on X (formerly Twitter), the #44 driver replied, “Get well soon Heikki, praying for you.”

Advertisement

Kovalainen became Hamilton‘s teammate when Fernando Alonso departed the team at the end of the 2007 season. The duo were teammates for two seasons (2008 and 2009). During this stint, Hamilton outpaced the Finn 24-10 in a head-to-head battle in Grands Prix—which has been corrected for mechanical failures.

While the Silver Arrows’ talisman, Hamilton would be having Heikki in his thoughts, the sum total of his focus will now be shifted to the Grand Prix. After yet another difficult session behind the wheel of the W15, Hamilton will start the Japanese Grand Prix from 7th on the grid.

Despite disappointing Quali, Lewis Hamilton has high hopes for the race

Mercedes haven’t been able to give Hamilton the car that can fight for wins, poles, and championships for quite a while. And a testament to that has been his performances in the season’s opening races. At the Suzuka International Circuit, he had yet another frustrating outing.

GPBlog.com quoted him as saying, “I’m naturally not happy with P7, of course.” However, given how close the gaps were during the qualifying session, he had high hopes for the race to come.

Advertisement

“I think it’s gonna be really close between us all. If you look at qualifying, everyone is within half a tenth or whatever, the top seven or eight. I think it’s very, very, very close, so I hope where I put the car is going to be good in the race tomorrow,” concluded the #44 driver.