Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton

Name: Lewis Hamilton

Nationality: Great Britain

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Just two seasons into his F1 career and Lewis Hamilton is the reigning World Champion and, arguably, the most famous driver in the sport.

Lewis began his motorsport career in karting in 1995 when he was crowned the Super One British Champion as well as the STP Champion. It was the start of his dominance in all the series that he would enter.

The following year, still in the Cadet Class, he won the Sky TV Kart Masters as well as the Five Nations. The year he also began his association with McLaren, winning the McLaren Mercedes 'Champions of the Future' series.

In 1997, in Junior Yamaha, he again was crowned the Super One British Champion as well as winning the McLaren Mercedes 'Champions of the Future' series for the second successive season.

A fourth in the Italian Open Championship the next season resulted in Lewis being signed by McLaren and Mercedes-Benz to their Young Driver Support Programme.

The Briton then spent a year in Intercontinental A before moving to Formula A where he was crowned the European Champion.

His karting career over, Hamilton switched to the British Formula Renault Championship late in 2001 and he won the title in 2003.

He then progressed to the F3 Euroseries, winning the Championship in 2005.

Lewis's next Championship success came in 2006, when he won the GP2 series at his first attempt with ART Grand Prix.

His achievements earned him a test drive with the McLaren F1 team and after impressing team boss Ron Dennis, Lewis landed the coveted role of team-mate to World Champion Fernando Alonso for the 2007 season.

He quickly rose to the occasion, with a third-placed finish on his debut in Australia seeing Dennis's faith in Hamilton immediately vindicated - and a star born almost overnight.

The rookie went on to record eight consecutive podium finishes, including race wins in Canada and the United States - his first finish out of the points only coming in round 10 of the Championship at the European GP.

However, he bounced back with a win in Hungary and followed that up with three more points finishes before claiming his fourth win of the season amidst atrocious conditions in Japan.

With two races remaining, Lewis looked set for the title, but a poor tyre decision saw him spin out of the Chinese GP.

He still remained favourite to take the Drivers' Championship heading into the final race of the season in Brazil.

However, the combination of a disastrous opening lap and a gearbox problem meant he could only finish seventh, with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen taking the title by a single point.

Following an at-times fraught relationship with both Hamilton and senior team personnel, Alonso then left McLaren after just one season to return to Renault.

Heikki Kovalainen duly headed in the other direction, with Hamilton immediately emerging as the stronger of the Woking drivers as the 2008 season got underway.

Four podium finishes, including two wins, in the opening five races saw Hamilton get his season off to a solid start.

However, a crash in the pit lane in Canada - where he failed to see the red light and took out rival Raikkonen - earned him condemnation. It also saw him penalised for the French GP.

Hamilton fought back at the British GP to win his home race in stunning fashion - his peers struggling to cope with the wet conditions - while another win in Germany was followed by a string of five points finishes.

But along with the points came the penalties which at times seemed to be aimed at stopping Hamilton from winning the title.

After being stripped of victory in the Belgian GP, Hamilton was also penalised during the Japanese GP when he was punished for pushing Raikkonen wide at the start of the race.

However, he came back strongly with a lights-to-flag win in China and headed to Brazil for the second year in a row as title favourite.

Hamilton held the fifth place he needed to become World Champion late in the race but following a rain shower he slipped down to sixth.

His title rival Felipe Massa did all he needed to do by taking the chequered flag at Interlagos - and momentarily appeared to have upset the odds.

Incredibly, however, Hamilton passed the ailing Timo Glock on the last corner of the last lap to become the sport's youngest ever World Champion.