The Cold Cut

Lewis Hamilton is a revelation; since Damon Hill retired in 1999, Britain has been stuck with Jensen Button, who has only succeeded in winning a one out of his 113 races. To be fair, he as been on the podium a fair few times, but Britain's new boy Lewis Hamilton has been on the podium in both of his first two races. He was placed third in the Australian Grand Prix, and second in the next Grand Prix in Sepang. This was exceptional, and is the best result ever seen in a driver's first two races in Formula One. Its no coincidence that the day after his first race I opened up the newspaper to find his face on pretty much every advert and article, touting him justifiably as the next F1 star. My Dad certainly thinks so; he has been closely following Hamilton since the start of is F1 career and I can hear his excitement on a Sunday race morning when Lewis inevitably places.

In the qualifying race for the Bahrain race that took place this morning, Hamilton got his first front-row start, coming second after Ferrari's Felipe Massa. I hope the pattern I see emerging continues to develop, and that Hamilton finishes first tomorrow. Whatever happens, it is clear that Britain has found a new talent to take some of the strain of Button (a bit like Andy Murry coming along to relieve Tim Henman as the only British hope).