Hertfordshire Hamilton

Even from an early age Hamilton showed his inherent natural talent at racing cars. Aged just six, he was already racing and beating adults in remote-control car championships. Just two years later, this precocious Hertfordshire talent made the inevitable jump to karting at the Rye House Kart Circuit in Hoddesdon.

Hamilton made what was to become a customary instant impact by quickly amassing race victories and Cadet Class Championships. However, the biggest impression he shortly made was on one of F1's then top dogs.

Still only ten-years-old, this confident youngster approached the Mclaren F1 team boss Ron Dennis at a race meeting to get his autograph, but also took the opportunity to boldly declare his future intentions: Hi. I'm Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars." A stunned Dennis responded with: Phone me in nine years, we'll sort something out then." It was the start of a hugely successful racing relationship.

In fact, it took just three years for Dennis to call Hamilton himself. By this point, the mercurial talent had won an additional Super One series on top of his second British championship. Dennis swooped and put Hamilton on the McLaren driver development program.

Over the following years Hamilton's meteoric rise continued under the tutelage of both Mclaren and his mentor Dennis. He enjoyed success at Formula Renault and Formula Three before graduating to GP2 in 2006 and winning the championship at the first attempt.

And his success at every rung of the racing ladder led to Mclaren announcing that Hamilton, untried at F1 level, would be partnering the double defending World Champion Fernando Alonso for the 2007 F1 season. This 21-year-old from Tewin, was suddenly thrust into the world-wide spotlight. He was going to be driving alongside the biggest name in F1 and representing one of the most powerful teams.

Lesser men would have buckled under the intense pressure but Hamilton is not one of them. He made a sensational start to the 2007 season, recording nine consecutive podium finishes in the first nine races a record for a rookie driver. This amazing sequence included victories at both he Canadian and the United States Grand Prix.

His remarkable debut season meant that he had a chance of becoming the first ever driver to become World Champion in his rookie campaign. But, due to a mixture of bad luck and engine problems during the race, Hamilton could only manage seventh place and he missed out by just the solitary point.

However, Hamilton returned stronger and more mature for the 2008 campaign. He was determined to write his name into the history books at the second time of asking.

And on the final corner of the final race of the season Hamilton seized the opportunity to write himself into F1 folklore by overtaking Timo Glock to claim fifth place and win the championship by just the one point.

The man from Tewin, Hertfordshire, became F1's youngest ever champion and Britain's first since Damon Hill back in 1996.

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