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Lewis Hamilton


Nationality Flag of United Kingdom British
Car # 2
Current team Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
World Championship career
Races 1
World Championships 0
Wins 0
Podium finishes 1
Pole positions 0
Fastest laps 0
First race 2007 Australian Grand Prix


Latest race 2007 Australian Grand Prix
2006 Championship position —

Lewis Carl Hamilton (born January 7, 1985 in Stevenage , Hertfordshire, England) is a British Formula One racing driver. As of the 2007 Formula One season he drives for the McLaren team, making his debut in Australia.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Personal and early life
* 2 Racing career
o 2.1 Pre-Formula One
+ 2.1.1 Karting
+ 2.1.2 Junior Formulas
o 2.2 Formula One
+ 2.2.1 2007 Onward: McLaren
* 3 Racing record
* 4 Complete Formula One World Championship Results
* 5 References
* 6 External links

[edit] Personal and early life

Lewis Hamilton was born in Hertfordshire on January 7, 1985.[1] His father's parents had immigrated to the United Kingdom from the Caribbean island of Grenada.[2] In early 2007 he moved from Tewin Wood, Hertfordshire to Woking in Surrey in order to be closer to the Mclaren factory.

[edit] Racing career

[edit] Pre-Formula One
Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM
Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM

[edit] Karting

Hamilton began karting in 1993 at the age of eight[3], and quickly began winning races and championships.

He progressed through the Cadet (1995-6), Junior Yamaha (1997), Junior Intercontinental A (1998-9), Intercontinental A (1999) and Formula A (2000) ranks in six seasons. Following his karting successes the British Racing Drivers’ Club made him a ‘Rising Star’ Member in 2000[3].

[edit] Junior Formulas

Hamilton began his car racing career in the 2001 British Formula Renault Winter Series, finishing fifth overall[3]. This led to a full 2002 Formula Renault UK campaign with Manor Motorsport. Hamilton finished third overall with three wins and three pole positions [3]. He remained with Manor for another year and won the championship convincingly with ten wins, beating Alex Lloyd with 419 points to 377[3]. But his debut appearance in British Formula Three was less successful – Hamilton crashed out of both races at the Brands Hatch season finale, being taken to hospital after the second[3]. He did show his speed at both the Macau and Korean Grand Prix. In the latter he qualified on pole position in his first visit to the Korean track and in only his fourth race outing in a f3 car.

Hamilton and Manor then made their debut in the 2004 Formula Three Euroseries. They won just one race and Hamilton was fifth in the championship. He also won the Bahrain F3 Superprix, race one of the Macau F3 Grand Prix, and had his first test in a McLaren F1 car in December[3] that year. He defected to reigning Euroseries champions ASM for the 2005 season and dominated the championship, winning 15 of the 20 rounds. He also won the Ultimate Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort [3].

After the season British magazine Autosport featured him in their “Top 50 Drivers of 2005” issue, ranking Hamilton 24th[3]. This success led him to join ART Grand Prix for the 2006 GP2 Series season. Like ASM in F3, ART were the class of the field and reigning champions having taken the 2005 GP2 crown with Nico Rosberg [3].

Despite stiff opposition from rivals who had raced in the GP2 series during 2005, such as team mate Alexandre Prémat and Nelson Angelo Piquet, Lewis duly won the GP2 championship at his first attempt. Among his notable performances was a dominant win at the fifth round held at the Nurburgring, which he won after serving a penalty for speeding in the pits.[3]

At his home race at Silverstone, supporting the British Grand Prix, he impressed again by overtaking two rivals at Becketts, a series of high-speed (up to 150 mph in a GP2 car) bends where overtaking is rare. He demonstrated his overtaking prowess again at the race in Istanbul, although he failed to win on that occasion. He became GP2 champion in unusual circumstances. Giorgio Pantano won the penultimate race at Monza, and set the fastest lap on the final lap, initially taking this bonus point from Hamilton. However, it transpired that he had set this under a yellow flag, indicating to the officials that he had not slowed enough to avoid potential danger, leading to him losing the fastest lap, which instead gave Hamilton the single point he needed to clinch the title.[3]

[edit] Formula One

In November 2006, Lewis enjoyed a very successful first few days of testing a McLaren in Spain. He set competitive times and was occasionally quicker than Pedro De La Rosa and the rest of the field, although this was down to Mclaren having a more successful transition onto Bridgestone tyres than the other teams.

On 17th March 2007, Lewis achieved the 4th position on the grid ahead of the start of his debut, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne- the season-opener for the 2007 Formula One season. His fastest lap in the second qualifying session was completed in 1 min and 26.755 seconds, 0.262 seconds behind the time set by team-mate and defending world champion Fernando Alonso and 0.683 seconds behind the session's best time clocked by Kimi Raikkonen (1 min and 26.072 seconds).

In his first drive for McLaren, at the Melbourne Grand Prix, Hamilton qualified in 4th position, and took a podium on his debut performance, finishing 3rd. Hamilton finished 18.5 seconds behind race winner Kimi Raikkonen and 7.2 seconds behind his team mate Fernando Alonso in second place. Hamilton led his first Grand Prix on lap 20 until he pitted on lap 23 and led again on lap 43 when he pitted for a second time.

[edit] 2007 Onward: McLaren

Main article: McLaren

As early as 1994 Hamilton had introduced himself to McLaren team boss Ron Dennis, at that Year's Autosport Awards[3], asking if he could drive for the team in the future.

In 1998 he was signed to the McLaren Driver Development Support programme. The contract included a future option on an F1 seat making Hamilton, 13 at the time, the youngest driver ever to have an F1 contract[3].

His 2006 GP2 championship coincided with a vacancy at McLaren following the departure of Juan Pablo Montoya to NASCAR and Kimi Räikkönen to Ferrari [3].

After a long period of speculation of whether he, Pedro de la Rosa, Gary Paffett, or even Mika Häkkinen would drive for McLaren alongside World Champion Fernando Alonso for the 2007 Formula One season, Hamilton was confirmed as the team's second driver[4]. He was told of McLaren’s decision on September 30th, but the news was not made public until November 24th, for fear that it would be overshadowed by Michael Schumacher’s retirement announcement[3].

Hamilton is the first black driver with prominent African or Caribbean ancestry to compete in Formula One,[5] although Willy T. Ribbs tested a Formula One car over 20 years ago.[6].



Good luck to the lad he has worked very hard for it.

saw him at rye house years ago,wondered who it was with the new silver merc van and all the gear.
i may have raced against him

I was very impressed with his first corner in his first race - going round the outside of the defending world champion to slot into second! That took cojones!