Sports Then and Now

The 2011 China Grand Prix will go down in history as one of the very best and one that will live long in the memory of the race winner, Lewis Hamilton, who once again proved why he is the sport’s biggest box office attraction.

If there was ever a Grand Prix that had everything then this was it in Shanghai, a battle of race strategies, incredible overtaking, particularly by Hamilton, a charge from the back from Mark Webber of Red Bull that defied belief, It also had a moment of serious embarrassment when McLaren’s Jenson Button parked his car in the Red Bull pit for a tyre change, a mistake which cost him the lead in the race at the time.

Hamilton, had qualified only in third place on the grid after deciding that he will only make one run in the final q3 practice in order to preserve the tyres that he would be starting with. This would mean that he would adopt a three stop strategy as opposed to the two to be made by Vettel in his Red Bull.

He had to endure a scare before the start of the race where a minor fuel leak was detected and which was only rectified within a half minute of the start time. Notwithstanding, Hamilton got off to a flyer off the grid, charging up the inside of Vettel which demoted the world champion to third place as Button had already steamed past him to lead. Read the rest of this entry →

2008 Champion, Lewis Hamilton, holds solid claims of regaining the F1 Drivers Championship in 2011

Lewis Hamilton begins his fifth season driving for the F1 McLaren team in March hoping that he can improve upon his fourth place in the world driver’s championship achieved in 2010.

Hamilton won the Driver’s Championship in 2008, in what was only his second ever season as a driver at the top level of the sport, finishing a single point clear of Felipe Massa driving for Ferrari. It was a magnificent effort made even more special due to the fact that he was only 24 years old, the youngest ever winner of the world championship! It should also be remembered that the year before was his F1 debut season where he finished in second place just a single point behind Kimi Raikonnen of Ferrari.

To date Hamilton has won 14 F1 Grand Prix’s on eleven different circuits and has had 36 podium finishes. He holds a number of records including:

• The most consecutive podium finishes – 9

• Most wins in a debut season (2007) – 4

• Most Pole positions in a debut season (2007) – 6

• Most points in a debut season – 109 (points system now changed)

In his four years on the Formula One circuit, he has finished 2^nd, 1^st, 5^th and 4^th and has only retired from seven races in 71 starts, although he was disqualified in the 2009 Australian GP.

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