Lewis Hamilton becomes youngest ever F1 World Drivers Champion
We're not going to tell you who won yesterday's season finale at the Brazilian Grand Prix. We'll leave that to Noah in his usual race recap. What we will tell you is that Lewis Hamilton bounced back from a scandal-ridden season that saw his McLaren team excluded from the championship in 2007 to capture this year's World Drivers Championship. That makes Hamilton the youngest F1 champion ever in only his second year as part of the grand prix circus. British-born Hamilton won the title 67 days before his 24th birthday. With five wins in 2008, he successfully managed to avoid the sophomore jinx. Hopefully he won't follow in the footsteps of Jacques Villeneuve and abandon a successful team for a startup with lots of money and zero success. The really big question for Lewis now is will he acknowledge that he is in fact the Stig? Thanks to Richard for the tip!
[Source: Formula1.com, Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
John Johnson 8:29AM (11/03/2008)
Holy freakin spoilers batman.
Well, at least we know how it all ends.
Thanks, Autoblog. Watching the race tonight will be so much better now.
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ack154 8:41AM (11/03/2008)
Trust me... the race is still well worth watching. Fantastic way to end the season.
BTW... you guys really needed a "tip" to publish this one?
Bevill 8:46AM (11/03/2008)
Honestly you just need to watch the last 5 laps. I'm not a fan of Hamilton but the end of the race/season was amazing. I won't spoil what happened for you but the Ferrari garage thought Masa had won it and it was heart breaking when his father finally saw the results.
John Johnson 8:50AM (11/03/2008)
Well, I fibbed a little, I did watch it. Excellent race, very emotional at the end. The intro video was sweeeeet too.
I just figured AB would post up a spoiler like this. Kinda ruins it for people that haven't seen it :/
Phil Perman 8:53AM (11/03/2008)
I agree with Bevill, it was one of the best ends to a rave I've ever seen, but the rest was fairly standard.
Also, one of the funniest things I've seen in ages, Ferrari realising they hadn't won (don't click if you're planning on watching it later)
http://fotos.subefotos.com/a984babe3db3feffe4e295c5e18197cfo.gif
DjDATZ 9:49AM (11/03/2008)
A TRULY amazing race. :D
Quattrofan 11:17AM (11/03/2008)
Hey Drama Queen, you are acting like this is your first day here. Stay the f$%k off the Internet next time or quit your whining.
What I really came here to say...
I can't remember last time I had this much fun watching an F1 race. Congrats to Hamilton.
David 11:35AM (11/03/2008)
I was heartbroken for Massa's family too - for about 2 seconds.
Then I remembered all the Ferrari/FIA cheating that had been going on and realised that he should never have been that close to Hamilton in the first place.
Gabagool 8:31AM (11/03/2008)
Looks like it will be a good week for people of African decent.
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John Johnson 8:50AM (11/03/2008)
Bahahahahahaha. You win.
Squiderman 9:28AM (11/03/2008)
Obama/Hamilton '08
We're half-way there!
Banan 6:04PM (11/03/2008)
Stop with that racial sh**. Aren't we all sons of the same god? That's just pure segregation. One love for all my brothers and sisters of any race!
G 8:32AM (11/03/2008)
Oh my Glock :)))))
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Mike 8:53AM (11/03/2008)
Does this mean he will get the last produced McLaren F1 as promised at the start of the season? Or was that last season?
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bduddy 9:02AM (11/03/2008)
That was only if McLaren also won the WCC.
Tim 9:23AM (11/03/2008)
Super great race!!
However.... The Toyota stunt at the end really really makes me question the outcome. I find it extremely hard to believe both drivers lost 15+ seconds in the last few turns of the race when the conditions were unchanged from the previous lap.
What are everyone's thoughts ???
Either way... both FM & LH deserve the title... great season.
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ack154 9:30AM (11/03/2008)
It was a little bizarre... but the conditions were iffy. Even if they were unchanged from the previous lap, he could have lost a lot of time at that same spot at each lap, we don't know that for sure. I just couldn't believe Vettel got by and pulled away.
John Johnson 9:32AM (11/03/2008)
Well, Sebastian Vettel certainly didn't earn any favors from McLaren for passing Lewis to put him out of title contention.
I tried to check the F1 site for anything - I'd like to see the telemetry to see if he lifted, or lost traction, or something. Either way, I'd bet he got a rather friendly phone call from McLaren later that evening.
matt 9:36AM (11/03/2008)
the tyres killed toyota and it played well for hamilton, end of story.
natt 7:12AM (11/04/2008)
well, Timo (toyota dude) was running on hard tire during last laps raining, so he could'nt patch up the speed for last corner. that's why he felt to the 6th.