Lewis Hamilton - The new face of Formula One
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by user Alex Holowczak
Never has there been a motor racing story like Lewis Hamilton.
He drove go-karts as a youngster, and his racing at that age was funded exclusively by his father Anthony, who was working two jobs at the time.
He introduced himself to Ron Dennis, team principle of McLaren Mercedes, at his father's suggestion. The 13 year old said that he'd like to drive one of Dennis' McLarens in Formula One one day.
Just a couple of weeks later Dennis had offered to fund Hamilton's racing career. He instantly became part of McLaren's Young Drivers Programme, which helps to develop young drivers.
Since then, Hamilton has been driving good cars in Junior Formulae, but has been winning in all of them. He has dominated every race series he's ever been entered into, and at the end of 2006, a race seat opened for McLaren.
It was nonetheless a shock that Dennis opted for Hamilton ahead of the more experienced Pedro de la Rosa, who had driven for McLaren at the end of the 2006 season admirably.
Hamilton has since grown from strength to strength. He finished third in Melbourne, his first race, and showed great skill at the first corner, showing the audacity to overtake his teammate, double World Champion Fernando Alonso.
Hamilton then went on a streak of four second place finishes that left him tied for the lead in the championship. He felt he could win in Monaco, but common sense prevailed and Alonso was allowed to win.
Hamilton secured his first pole position on Saturday in Montreal, Alonso looked set to take it from him, but he messed up the final chicane, leaving Hamilton to take the first place on the grid.
Yesterday's race was a tough one. On the first corner, Alonso tried to overtake Hamilton, but went off giving Hamilton the lead. Hamilton then went into a 20 second lead after his first pit stop.
But then a series of safety cars whittled away all of the lead. Whenever he moved a few seconds ahead, it was wiped out again. There was a huge accident involving Robert Kubica, the worst for a decade, that resulted in a broken leg for Kubica, bringing out the safety car once more.
On race restarts, Hamilton was again excellent, each time giving himself room to not get overtaken straight away and go on to build his lead.
Finally Hamilton claimed the win. He was helped by the safety cars which were a problem for cars behind him. Alonso went off at Turn 1 four times throughout the afternoon, and also got penalised for exiting the pit lane when it was closed (he had to, or he would have ran out of fuel). To make matters worse, he was 6th until a Super Aguri, a perennial backmarker, overtook him on the penultimate lap.
The day was bad for his rivals too. Kimi Raikkonen was 5th, and Felipe Massa was black flagged for exiting the pit lane when the red light was on.
Hamilton leads the Championship by 8 points going to Round 7 of 17 this season. The race is the United States Grand Prix, to be held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, not on the oval, but on the infield in the middle, and one of the oval corners and the long main straight (backwards!).
Alonso usually struggles at Indy, and Ferrari looked poor in Montreal. Hopefully Hamilton can win back to back races before the series returns to Europe. He has become a household name in Britain, and it is hoped around the world. It is hoped his story will even inspire the US Audience into F1. I suppose viewing figures at Indy this week will tell.
Hamilton has admirers all over the world. From Jackie Stewart, Michael Schumacher, Niki Lauda and Damon Hill, who won a combined total of 14 World Championships, there is a lot of opinion that says Hamilton can be champion this season.
Hamilton will have all the pace of Michael Schumacher with a bit more experience, but with the right attitude to boot. No cheating - just great racing. At least, that is my hope.
One thing for certain, the United States Grand Prix on Sunday will be certainly be more entertaining than the Citizens Bank 400.
Winning Moments
These show Hamilton winning the race - you even get the ad breaks... Very broken coverage from many sources - sorry. The third video shows Kubica's accident.
