Hamilton on his way to becoming one of the F1 greats
Hamburg - Lewis Hamilton's coronation as the youngest champion in the history of Formula following a nail-biting finale in the Brazilian Grand Prix has left racing audiences throughout the world crying out for more.
In an action-packed race Sunday, Hamilton exorcised the ghosts of a year earlier, when he threw away a 17-point lead in the final two races of the season to hand the title to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, by passing Toyota's Timo Glock on the last lap to secure the fifth place he needed.
Hamilton went into the race at Interlagos holding a seven-point lead over Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who needed both a victory and a Hamilton finish outside the top five to become the first Brazilian since the late Ayrton Senna in 1991 to take the title.
Massa duly raced to victory but the McLaren-Mercedes driver held his nerve during a late rain shower to snatch fifth and pip Massa to the title by a single point.
Hamilton's title win at the age of 23 years and 300 days has been greeted with euphoria in his native Great Britain with even Prime Minister Gordon Brown signing the driver's praises.
"I, like so many, want to congratulate him on becoming world champion. I think the whole country is thrilled by his exceptional talent," said Brown.
"The whole of Britain is now congratulating him, and is proud of the inspirational achievement of Lewis and the McLaren team."
Many in F1 believe Hamilton, who was born in in Stevenage, England on January 7, 1985, to a white mother and a black father, could have the same effect on the sport as Tiger Woods has had on golf.
"He has changed the grand prix world. His youth is the least if it. A frontier has fallen, the last great colour bar in mainstream sport shattered by a mixed race kid from Stevenage," wrote the Daily Telegraph.
While even seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has gone on record as saying Hamilton could repeat the German's one-time total dominance of the sport, if anything the events in Sao Paulo show that F1 is more competitive than it has been for a long time.
Massa and Hamilton's season-long battle for the title shows there is very little in terms of performance between the McLaren and Ferrari teams while Renault's Fernando Alonso seems to finally have a competitive car once again as evidenced by the two-time world champion's two race wins and a second place in Brazil in the last four races of the season.
Sebastian Vettel also looks like having all the attributes necessary to become a future champion. The Toro Rosso driver became the youngest ever F1 race winner when he took victory in the Italian GP earlier this year and also came out on top in his battle with Hamilton at Interlagos.
The 21-year-old German replaces the now retired David Coulthard at Red Bull next season but is certain to be a target for Ferrari or McLaren if he continues his current rate of progress.
But whatever about the future, the present certainly belongs to Hamilton.
"We came, we saw and we did what we needed to do," he said. (dpa)
In an action-packed race Sunday, Hamilton exorcised the ghosts of a year earlier, when he threw away a 17-point lead in the final two races of the season to hand the title to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, by passing Toyota's Timo Glock on the last lap to secure the fifth place he needed.
Hamilton went into the race at Interlagos holding a seven-point lead over Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who needed both a victory and a Hamilton finish outside the top five to become the first Brazilian since the late Ayrton Senna in 1991 to take the title.
Massa duly raced to victory but the McLaren-Mercedes driver held his nerve during a late rain shower to snatch fifth and pip Massa to the title by a single point.
Hamilton's title win at the age of 23 years and 300 days has been greeted with euphoria in his native Great Britain with even Prime Minister Gordon Brown signing the driver's praises.
"I, like so many, want to congratulate him on becoming world champion. I think the whole country is thrilled by his exceptional talent," said Brown.
"The whole of Britain is now congratulating him, and is proud of the inspirational achievement of Lewis and the McLaren team."
Many in F1 believe Hamilton, who was born in in Stevenage, England on January 7, 1985, to a white mother and a black father, could have the same effect on the sport as Tiger Woods has had on golf.
"He has changed the grand prix world. His youth is the least if it. A frontier has fallen, the last great colour bar in mainstream sport shattered by a mixed race kid from Stevenage," wrote the Daily Telegraph.
While even seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has gone on record as saying Hamilton could repeat the German's one-time total dominance of the sport, if anything the events in Sao Paulo show that F1 is more competitive than it has been for a long time.
Massa and Hamilton's season-long battle for the title shows there is very little in terms of performance between the McLaren and Ferrari teams while Renault's Fernando Alonso seems to finally have a competitive car once again as evidenced by the two-time world champion's two race wins and a second place in Brazil in the last four races of the season.
Sebastian Vettel also looks like having all the attributes necessary to become a future champion. The Toro Rosso driver became the youngest ever F1 race winner when he took victory in the Italian GP earlier this year and also came out on top in his battle with Hamilton at Interlagos.
The 21-year-old German replaces the now retired David Coulthard at Red Bull next season but is certain to be a target for Ferrari or McLaren if he continues his current rate of progress.
But whatever about the future, the present certainly belongs to Hamilton.
"We came, we saw and we did what we needed to do," he said. (dpa)
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