Davison, Lewis Hamilton reconnect in Melbourne

Will Davison has reconnected with old sparring partner Lewis Hamilton on the eve of the Australian Grand Prix, more than 20 years after they locked horns in Europe.

Before he set sights on Supercars, Davison was once on the doorstep of Formula 1, notably racing future F1 great Hamilton in Europe.

After consecutive Formula Ford titles, a young Davison moved to Europe and finished fourth in the 2002 Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship.

Davison scored three podiums and finished behind champion Danny Watts, Jamie Green and Hamilton.

Over two decades on, Davison and Hamilton's paths crossed again on Saturday courtesy of mutual sponsor Shell V-Power, joined by respective teammates Brodie Kostecki and Charles Leclerc.

"Great to bump into an old friend after racing together many years ago," Davison posted to social media.

"To see his passion and desire burning so bright in the almighty Red after so much success is incredible."

The duo share an affinity with the Australian Grand Prix, with Hamilton a winner at Albert Park in 2008 and 2015. Davison's late grandfather Lex, meanwhile won the Grand Prix four times between 1954 and 1961 in the event's pre-F1 era.

Davison and Hamilton infamously clashed at Croft in 2002, where Davison would win in British Formula 3 a year later. Speaking of the battle to Supercars.com last year, Davison told Supercars.com: “Lewis and I raced really tight all year.

“We had a huge battle at Croft for the podium, he was chasing me, but all of a sudden, he went around in my mirror. He tried to lunge me and clipped me, but he spun.

“After the race, I remember I was getting changed in the front of the truck, and I heard someone say, ‘Is Will in there?’ To myself, I was like, ‘Oh man, here we go. Just typical, we're gonna have an argument or something. What's his problem?’

"But he just came into the truck and said, ‘Just want to say what an awesome battle that was, you drove really well, that was really cool.’

“I was completely caught off guard. Like, it's just a race, he'd spun and messed up, but I hadn't been dirty or anything — we just had a really good, hard, fair race.

"And I just that's always stuck in my mind that, although he'd spun out and had a shocker, he'd actually come to just sort of say, ‘Cool race.’ I’ll never forget that.”

Despite their on-track battles, Davison and Hamilton remained mates, the former adding: “I knew a lot of Lewis from karts, he already had a lot of pressure around him and a lot of media attention.

"Like, you used to see a lot of the other British kids, and they were quite jealous of him.

“But, we actually became pretty matey. We would often have meals and with him and his manager. Lewis was a really good kid to me.”