Daily Dispatch

GRAND PRIX F1

From humble beginnings to Formula 1 superstar, champion realises dream

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From humble beginnings to top driver Lewis Hamilton has arrived

Lewis Hamilton joined one of sport’s most exclusive clubs on Sunday when he became just the third driver to win a fifth Formula One world title.

His fourth-place finish at the Mexico Grand Prix lifted him into the company of the sport’s true greats, joining seven-time champion Michael Schumacher and fellow five-time winner Juan-Manuel Fangio – whom he describes as “The Godfather” – in the F1 pantheon.

To have won more than men like Australia’s Jack Brabham, fellow-Briton Jackie Stewart, Austrian Niki Lauda and Brazilians Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna as well as modern day rival Sebastian Vettel is a spectacula­r statement of achievemen­t.

The son of a black father and a white mother, who survived a broken home in his youth, Hamilton, 33, grew up on a municipal housing estate in Stevenage where his father Anthony at one time held down three jobs to fund his son’s embryonic racing career in karts.

His journey was unprivileg­ed and without luxury, but it was clear from an early age that he had an outstandin­g gift for speed and all the gutsy natural instincts of a born racer.

In 1995, aged 10, and wearing a jacket and shoes borrowed from his predecesso­r as British Formula Cadet karting champion, he went to a glittering awards ceremony in London where he met McLaren’s thenboss Ron Dennis.

He asked for an autograph and told him “one day I want to race for you”. Dennis replied: “Phone me in nine years and I’ll sort you a deal.”

The McLaren chief did not wait that long. After less than three years, he agreed to support Hamilton’s passage through the junior formulae en route to his F1 debut with his team in 2007.

Bold, determined and individual, he almost won the title in his first record-breaking season as he reeled off nine successive podiums from his debut in Melbourne, rocking the establishm­ent along the way with his speed and his style.

On and off the track, he was fast, somewhat mercurial and occasional­ly tempestuou­s and this combinatio­n led to a fierce rivalry with teammate and twotime champion Fernando Alonso, who left McLaren at the end of the year.

That was a signal of how tough it was to be for all his future teammates as Hamilton, who narrowly missed out on the 2007 title, returned to triumph in 2008 with a dramatic fifth-place finish in Brazil.

He also showed frustratio­n as McLaren failed to deliver the speed to beat Vettel and Red Bull, who reeled off four straight title triumphs from 2010 to 2013, by when Hamilton had departed for Mercedes.

Escaping the management regime of Dennis and his father, Hamilton found freedom at

He wants to optimise, to develop and he is very much part of the leadership of the team

Mercedes alongside teammate German Nico Rosberg, his teenage karting friend and rival.

This enabled Hamilton to express himself with a headlinegr­abbing trans-Atlantic lifestyle, mixing with musicians and “fashionist­as”.

He showed little love for any duty to obey convention­s and, for many observers, gave his sport a welcome injection of freshness and diversity as champion again in 2014 and 2015.

Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff summed up: “He is never satisfied. He never settles. He is never happy with where he is as a racing driver and a human being. He wants to optimise, to develop and he is very much part of the leadership of the team.”

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 ?? Picture: GETTY IMAGES/AFP/DAN ISTITENE ?? JOINING ELITE LEAGUE: Fourth place finisher Lewis Hamilton celebrates winning the 2018 F1 World Drivers Championsh­ip with his team after the Formula One Grand Prix of Mexico on Sunday.
Picture: GETTY IMAGES/AFP/DAN ISTITENE JOINING ELITE LEAGUE: Fourth place finisher Lewis Hamilton celebrates winning the 2018 F1 World Drivers Championsh­ip with his team after the Formula One Grand Prix of Mexico on Sunday.

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