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Lewis Hamilton Profile

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

Already, it is difficult to imagine motorsport with Hamilton - but, then, F1 has been cast as his destiny from an early age.

Lewis began his motorsport career in 1995 when he 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 Young Driver Support Programme.

The Brit then spent a year in Intercontinental A before moving to Formula A where he was crowned the European Champion. After that is was off to the British Formula Renault, where he won the title in 2003 and then on to the F3 Euroseries, winning the Championship in 2005.

Lewis's latest Championship success came in 2006, when he won the GP2 series with ART Grand Prix.

The Brit's achievements in junior series earned him a test driver role with the McLaren F1 team and after impressing team boss Ron Dennis, Lewis landed the coveted role of team-mate to Fernando Alonso in the 2007 F1 season.

And he quickly rose to the occasion.

Fourth place in his first qualifying and a third-placed finish in his debut grand prix in Australia saw Dennis' faith in Hamilton immediately vindicated.

The McLaren driver went on to record a further eight consecutive podium finishes, including race wins in Canada and the United States before finishing his first race off the podium and out of the points in the European GP, round 10 of the Championship.

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 in Japan.

With two races remaining on the calendar, Lewis looked set for the World title, but a poor tyre decision led to him retiring from the Chinese GP, although he still entered the final race of the season as the leader in the Drivers' Championship.

Unfortunately for Lewis, though, it wasn't meant to be as a gearbox problem cost him roughly half a minute and put an end to his quest of becoming the first rookie F1 World Champion. But he still finished runner-up in the Championship, beating his double World Champion team-mate Fernando Alonso.

After a difficult and controversial driving 'partnership' with Fernando Alonso provided fertile ground for gossipers throughout Hamilton's rookie season, the pair were separated for 2008 with Alonso moving to Renault and Hamilton remaining at McLaren where he was partnered by Heikki Kovalainen. And the Brit immediately emerged as the stronger of the Woking drivers.

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 Kimi Raikkonen, earned him condemnation from his detractors., It also saw him penalised for the French

GP.

Hamilton came back at the British GP to win his home race in stunning fashion while his peers struggled 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 World 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, even though fitting 20 cars into one corner invariably means some run wide.

The McLaren driver, though, rose above it all, including racist abuse in the build-up to the Brazilian GP, to put aside 2007's disappointment to win the Drivers' Championship title by one point over Massa.

Hamilton now heads into the 2009 season as the man to beat, but if he can cut out his at times silly errors, he may prove to be unstoppable.