Lewis rules the world!

By Jonathan Gill

03rd November 2008

Newly crowned world champion Lewis Hamilton  is set to become one of the greatest racing drivers of all-time, according to Damon Hill, the last Briton to wear the F1 crown.

“He’s a cut above the rest and I think he will go on to win many more titles,” said Damon, after watching the 23-year-old become the youngest world champion in history. “There’s no doubt he has the raw talent and he’s still in the formative stage of his career.

“He is learning all the time, that’s what is so impressive about him. He has got a title in the bank and will be difficult to stop from now on.”

Though keen to make further inroads into Michael Schumacher’s record of seven F1 titles and 91 race wins, Hamilton admits he doesn’t want any more nail-biting finishes like the one he experienced in an astonishing climax to the season in Brazil.

Title rival and home favourite Felipe Massa won the race in his Ferrari, but Lewis scrambled past Timo Glock’s Toyota at the last corner to snatch the fifth place he needed and with it the title by the slenderest of margins. “I hope to win more titles, but I don’t think my heart will take many more final laps like that,” said the McLaren driver, who appeared to have missed out on the crown for the second year in a row after a late stop for wet tyres dropped him to sixth.

“It was one of the toughest races of my life. My heart was about to explode and I don’t know how I kept my cool!”