Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton is a British Formula One driver, born in Stevenage on 7 January 1985. His love for racing began at a young age with remote-controlled cars. He then moved onto karting at the age of 8.Lewis Hamilton quickly rose through the ranks, winning the British Championships twice and was signed to the McLaren driver development program by Ron Dennis.

In 2001 Lewis Hamilton took part in the British Formula Renault Winter Series, where he finished fifth overall. He then joined Manor Motorsport in 2002 to compete in the full Formula Renault UK series, coming in third place overall. The next year he won the Formula Renault title, with a total of 10 race victories, 11 pole positions and 9 fastest laps.

Lewis Hamilton moved on to the Formula Three Euroseries in 2004. He came in fifth place overall during that season. In typical Hamilton style he won the Formula Three Euroseries the very next year, with 15 wins, 13 pole positions and 10 fastest laps. Continuing his success, he went on to race for the GP2 team ART Grand Prix in 2006. A remarkable driver, he won the GP2 championship in his debut season.

Hamilton’s F1 career began in 2007 when he was signed with McLaren to drive alongside Fernando Alonso. Lewis Hamilton quickly showed that he was a force to be reckoned with, with errors in the final two rounds putting him in second place for the championship title, which went to Kimi Raikkonen. 2008 was a year to be remembered, as Lewis Hamilton became the youngest Formula One world champion at the age of 23.

Hamilton come in 5th place in the 2009 season, with 49 points. Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button (the 2009 championship winner) are McLaren teammates for the 2010 season.

Massa Wins Race, Hamilton Wins F1 Championship

It’s been an exciting F1 season right up until the last moment. Lewis Hamilton has been an incredibly strong contender for the Championship title, but during Sunday’s race it truly seemed as if his goal might slip through his fingers yet again.

In the end it was Ferrari driver Felipe Massa who won the race. The F1 race took place in front of his home crowd so you can imagine the cheers as Massa crossed the finish line in first place. Despite great driving and a first-place finish, Massa didn’t win the Formula One Championship and so it was young Hamilton that received all the praise and glory after the race.

In the beginning it didn’t seem as if Hamilton would be able to claim the championship victory. Despite going into the race with a seven point lead, he ended up struggling to place in the top three behind Toyota driver Timo Glock. In fact, he was stuck as far back as sixth place. Glock was driving on dry tires and it seems that that made life really hard for him when the rain hit. Glock commented: “It was just impossible on the last lap. I was fighting as hard as I could but it was so difficult to just keep the car on the track and I lost positions right at the end of the lap.” It was his difficulties which ultimately worked out in Hamilton’s favor. With driving rain making Glock’s race harder and harder, Hamilton was able to make his move and overtake on the final lap to finish fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix. It was all he needed to make sure that the hard-earned points he’d accumulated earlier in the year would help him to win the Formula One Championship Title.

Last year he lost the championship by just one point. This year, he won it by one point. After the race, an ecstatic Hamilton commented: “I am speechless. It’s been a long journey in which I had the support of many people. My team did a fantastic job during the entire year and we sacrificed ourselves a lot. I am happy for having achieved this for all of us.” The victory has made Lewis Hamilton the first British driver to win the championship since Damon Hill in 1996. Hamilton has also set a new record for being the youngest champion, the 23-year old McLaren driver beating Fernando Alonso’s record of 24 years of age with Renault in 2005.

Hamilton Wins Chinese Grand Prix

After an exciting race at the Shanghai International Circuit on the weekend, Lewis Hamilton goes on to the next leg of the Formula One Grand Prix Championship with a few more notches on his belt. Hopes are high that he’ll be able to clench the championship this year – a feat which is made even more special by the fact that it is exactly 50 years since the first British driver ever won the Formula One world title.

Lewis Hamilton is often considered to be the first ‘black’ driver in Formula One. Hence his winning this year’s world title would be yet another great accomplishment for British Formula One. Nevertheless a lot can happen between now and the end of the race and while the 23-year-old driver is currently in the lead, a similar lead in last years world title slipped between his fingers in the final races. While no one can predict what will happen in the last few championship races of the season, what is clear is that Hamilton absolutely dominated the Chinese Grand Prix from start to finish.

After world champion Kimi Raikkonen has slipped a bit too far down the standings, he has pledged to help Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa in his bid to win the world title rather than waste time trying to recover. And that is exactly what he did by easing his pace and letting Massa gain a place during the last few laps of the race. However Hamilton was clearly in top form and it seemed nothing would give Massa the boost needed to overtake him and claim the winner’s trophy. Massa finished second but that doesn’t mean that McLaren driver Hamilton can rest on his laurels. He still needs a further four points to be sure that the world title will not slip through his fingers a second time.

While it may seem that Hamilton just had the better skill that day, it would seem instead that a lot was determined by the tires used by the Ferrari and McLaren teams and this probably affected the handling of the vehicles quite a lot during the race. McLaren chose to use hard tires, while Ferrari opted for softer tires. That seemed to give Hamilton the boost he needed – he launched off the starting grid, led cleanly into the first corner and was 1.1 seconds ahead of competitor cars by the end of the first lap. It took ten laps just for the Ferrari team to gain on him. It was a mistake that Ferrari is unlikely to make again. It is now just a matter of time before the 2008 World Champion is crowned and all eyes are on Hamilton and Massa as they compete for top honors.

Drama at the Belgian Grand Prix

When Lewis Hamilton breezed over the finish line at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa in first place this weekend, it seemed he had claimed yet another victory for his team. However drama struck when officials later decided to impose a 25-second penalty on Hamilton, pushing him back to third place and giving the victory to Felipe Massa two hours after the race had ended.

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team has already registered their intention to appeal the decision but for now it seems that Hamilton will remain in third place. Apparently after race stewards reviewed videos of the chaos that ensued after a short but heavy downpour near the end of the race, they ruled that Hamilton should be penalized for actions taken at the Bus Stop chicane. Hamilton collided with Raikkonen, who was in first place, and inadvertently cut the corner. However he subsequently slowed down and allowed Raikkonen to retake the lead, perhaps as part of efforts to ward off a penalty. Unfortunately if that was his goal, it didn’t work. The stewards have ruled that he gained an advantage due to his actions. However Raikkonen later spun off the track on the same lap due to a completely unrelated incident, leaving Massa to gain the most from the ruling.

The British driver had again proved that he was the best wet-weather driver on the track when a sudden shower turned the race into utter chaos during the last few laps. Hamilton kept his cool, took the lead with ease after Raikkonen spun of the track and finished in first place with Massa (Ferrari) hot on his tail in second place and Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) in third. After the penalty was imposed Massa was moved into first place and Nick Heidfeld was gifted with second place. The change now means that Hamilton only takes six points instead of the ten he would have got for first place in the championship. It also pushes his team a little further back in the Constructors’ Championship. Vodafone McLaren Mercedes are currently second with 119 points after Ferrari with 131 points.

German Grand Prix Review

The German Grand Prix was perhaps one of the most unexpected races of the season. The surprising part wasn’t that Lewis Hamilton took the winner’s trophy, it was that the Ferrari Team performed dismally, with Massa only just managing to scrape together a third place.

It is a well-known fact that while Formula One Racing might be considered to be a science, with the performance of carefully tuned high performance vehicles being improved year after year by small scientific discoveries, it is really the art of driving that makes the biggest difference between a good race and a great race. The sport is physically and mentally challenging for the driver and it takes endurance, fitness, alertness and, most of all, skill to run a good race to the finish. For years now Ferrari has been dominating the sport, taking home one winner’s trophy after the next and maintaining a seemingly vice-like grip on the “Constructors Title.” They had the best drivers, the best cars and won the most races. But lately it seems they have hit a giant oil slick in their racing strategies. The cars are not performing the way they should and the drivers are not racing to their fullest potential. It is sad to see, but it gives other teams a chance to truly shine. And that was exactly what happened at the German Grand Prix this weekend.

In the beginning Raikkonen seemed to have the fastest car on the track and he was doing well. Light rain brought into question the use of tires better suited to the conditions and Team Ferrari chose not to put on new wet intermediates. The decision was strongly disputed and in the end it proved to be Raikkonen’s downfall. The result was that other teams such as Honda and McLaren could push to the front. By the end of the race all eyes were on Lewis Hamilton whose McLaren Mercedes car was screaming around the track in first place, after carefully climbing his way forward. Being able to take home the win in his home country must have only added to the joy Hamilton experienced at the event. The 23-year-old was clearly ecstatic and critics are wondering if they are going to see this youth blossom into one of the greatest drivers Formula One has ever seen. However, the fact remains that since other first class drivers such as Raikkonen and Massa were out of the picture, it is hard to tell exactly how he would perform against these more seasoned drivers if they were driving at their peak. Only time will tell exactly how good a driver he has the potential to become.

Rubens Barrichello also made good use of the rain, managing to climb the overall ranks somewhat during the course of the race. In the end it was Nelson Piquet for Renault who took second, and Felipe Massa of Ferrari who took third. The three were followed by Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber) and Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren Mercedes) respectively.

Hamilton Wins British Grand Prix

The race day dawned with incredibly wet conditions that ultimately made for some wild racing, but it seems that Lewis Hamilton managed to overcome all the obstacles to take the checkered flag at the British Grand Prix this past Sunday.

Hamilton’s last two races in Canada and France were not so good and he didn’t manage to collect points at either event. If his performance at Silverstone was as dismal this Sunday Hamilton would probably have lost out on taking the overall Formula One title, but it seems that in the end he managed to pull himself together rather well. His win not only gained him the Silverstone trophy, but put him in the overall lead. However, the race wasn’t easy, as wet conditions made the situation tricky at best. While other drivers struggled to find the right tires to keep them on course, Hamilton managed to stay in control for the entire race. His McLaren seemed to cope with the trying situation with effortless ease as other cars veered off course or spun off the circuit. His visor gave him problems and he had very low visibility but still somehow managed to keep going. Yet despite this it was clear that he was in a league of his own from early on in the race and the 23-year-old Briton was leading the field from the fourth lap. By the time he was nearing the finish line he’d managed to lap all but two of the cars still in the field. His performance was so good under the trying circumstances, in fact, that the 90 000 fans present seemed to think it was worthy of a standing ovation! The win marks Hamilton’s first British Grand Prix trophy and is will no doubt have a special place in his heart – not only for surviving under such difficult conditions but because some of his best driving and his most impressive victory happened in his home country.

Hamilton now has 48 points in the Formula One series and is tied with both Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari. However, he is in the championship lead because his finishes have been better than the other drivers’. Raikkonen only finished fourth.

Hamilton wins Monaco Grand Prix

When the cars lined up at the starting grid at Monaco on a very wet Sunday morning, it was anyone’s guess who’d take the checkered flag. The grueling, wet, race conditions put everyone through their paces and a lot of accidents kept fans excited and put pressure on contenders to drive well in order to place. In the end it was 23-year-old Lewis Hamilton from Britain who managed to take first place in an altogether outstanding race.

Hamilton left the starting grid in third place and quickly made his way to second right from the start, but then it seemed as if he’d spoilt his chances of winning when he swiped the wall six laps in and almost lost his back tire. However a quick pit stop fixed the damage and gave him the chance to do a bit of refueling, getting him back on the racing circuit in record time. His luck further turned when pole sitter Felipe Massa slipped up, giving him the chance to overtake and win the race. This brief summary of events makes the victory sound easy, but it certainly wasn’t. Persistent rain during the morning ensured that the race was slippery and there were literally dozens of crashes during the course of the grand prix. In fact, there were so many accidents that race officials eventually decided to shorten the race to 76 laps. Hamilton himself nearly saw his victory slip away a second time when his 40 second advantage was destroyed on the final 17 laps as the safety car came out. In the end he still managed to limp over the finish line in first place despite the fact that his tire was punctured by the debris left behind after Nico Rosberg’s accident. He beat Robert Kubica by only three seconds, and his victory made him the first English driver to win the Monaco Grand Prix since 1969. Felipe Massa finished in third place 4.811 seconds behind.

After a wild pit lane celebration, an overjoyed Hamilton remarked that he was “absolutely over the moon.” He also noted that this was definitely his best win yet and that he’d worked hard at keeping his cool – especially near the end when he saw the possibility of having his victory slip away from him. Hamilton finished second to Fernando Alonso at Monaco last year, and so it may seem that the win was a natural progression for him. However, it was a grueling race the whole way through and this made his victory even more spectacular.

Lewis Hamilton, Laureus Award Nominee

The new and talented rookie driver for the respected Formula 1 Grand Prix Racing Team, McLaren, has not finished stunning the world. Born Lewis Carl Hamilton on 7 January 1985, in England, he has had racing in his blood since he could remember. His dedication to the sport, including winning the 2006 GP2 championship title and securing 15 wins out of 20 races in 2005 during the F3 series, has secured him a future on the circuit he has dreamed of all his life.

The announcement, to confirm Hamilton as being the second driver in the 2007 Formula One season, came from McLaren in November 2006. Driving as the teammate to legendary driver, Fernando Alonso, is every 21 year olds dream, and most certainly the reason that Lewis Hamilton has thrown himself into his new career with enthusiasm and passion. Lewis has also written his name into the history books, by become the very first black driver on the Formula One circuit.

To add to his record-breaking career and historical milestones, Lewis Hamilton has also been nominated for the prestigious Laureus Award, along side sporting legends such as Michael Schumacher and Tiger Woods, who have also been nominated. Being amongst the six nominees for the ‘Breakthrough of the Year’ Award, is certainly just as rewarding as making it into the McLaren team. The awards ceremony for the Laureus Awards will be held in Barcelona on 2 April 2007, where Hamilton will be rubbing shoulders with all the nominated sporting greats from across the world.

The Laureus Award is a global award that was created to award sportsmen, to unite the various different sports and organizations and to highlight the influence that sport has on the community and addresses issues of importance through the support of the sporting community. Nominees for the different categories are selected by journalists from all over the world and are then presented to a panel of jury members. The jury is made up of 43 people who are all legends in the sporting world, and through them, the winners are selected. To be nominated for this award is an achievement on its own.