2008 F1 champion Lewis Hamilton: A shining star from Britain – Formula 1
The 26-year-old British driver Lewis Hamilton has done a remarkable job in the Formula 1 arena which makes all the British people proud and his fans all around the world delighted.
The astonishing and furious Brit has taken on the most famous and renowned names of Formula 1 to win a championship title in 2008.
The Brit started his Formula 1 career with the McLaren-Mercedes team and since then, has not changed his side and has made a world record of most number of Grands Prix with one team, 74. His most recent victory came in the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix.
At the age of eight, he started his racing journey when in 1993 he joined Karting. He quickly made his name on the Karting arena when he won the Cadet Class Championship. Moving on to make a career in Formula 1, Hamilton won a European Championship in 2000.
In 2001, Hamilton had the honour of Karting with one of the icon of Formula 1 world, Michael Schumacher. The Brit eventually finished seventh but Schumacher saw a star in him and praised him to become a Formula 1 driver one day.
Moving on to somewhat bigger cars, Hamilton drove in the British Formula Renault Winter Series in 2001 and finished fifth despite having a crash. In 2002, he moved to the Formula Renault UK and won the championship with ten wins in total.
In 2004, Hamilton was close to getting a contract with the Williams team but instead joined the Formula 3 Euro Series, after he could not gather any sponsors to make his way in the Williams team.
Hamilton came fifth in the Euro championship with the McLaren team and at the end of 2004, he had his first taste of a Formula 1 car when he test drove for the McLaren team at his home circuit, Silverstone.
The Brit moved to Formula 3 series and won the season in his first attempt. In 2006, he signed a deal with the McLaren team to drive as the second driver alongside double world champion Fernando Alonso in 2007.
At the age of 10, Hamilton took an autograph from the then McLaren team boss Ron Dennis and commented, “Hi. I'm Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars.” Ron replied, “Phone me in nine years, we'll sort something
out then.”
Finally, after almost 12 years of that conversation, Hamilton made his way into the McLaren team.
In his first outing in the McLaren car at the 2007 Australian Grand Prix, the Brit became the 13th driver to take a podium finish in their debut race, when he finished the race in third place. He went on to become the runner up in the 2007 season
behind Kimi Raikkonen with a difference of just one point.
In 2008, Hamilton won an epic battle with Ferrari’s Felipe Massa and won the world championship, just one point ahead of Massa. In the last race of 2008 in Brazil, Massa finished the race in 1st position and was the champion at that point because
Hamilton was finishing behind the required aggregate. Timo Glock of Toyota gave his place to the Brit after which Hamilton won the championship.
In 2009 and 2010, he remained in the top five positions for the McLaren team.
Hamilton is having his fifth world championship drive in 2011 and is still with the McLaren team. So far, he is fourth on the table (109 points) with one win after the first nine Grands Prix of the ongoing season.
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