Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton became the first man to win three Autosport Awards in the same year at the 2007 ceremony in London on Sunday evening.

The 22-year-old’s record-breaking first Formula 1 season earned him the titles of International Racing driver, British competition driver and rookie of the year at the star-studded ceremony.
He is the first man since Britain’s last world champion Damon Hill to win both the International and British accolades in the same year and admitted he was proud to pick up the trophies in front of a big crowd of family and colleagues.

“I am so proud to be here this evening,” he said on stage when collecting his rookie award from Hill. “To be in such a big crowd of people from Mercedes, McLaren and my family – it has really been a pleasure to be up there racing for them, it has been a dream come true. “I will continue to do it for you guys.”

Hamilton’s unprecedented rookie season in F1 captured the imagination of a new audience of fans as he took his quest to become the sport’s first rookie world champion all the way down to the final round in Brazil. He says the stellar start to his career was built on an intense period of preparation ahead of his debut race in Melbourne. “First year, working so hard to get there,” he said. “Before we got there [to Australia], me and my engineer didn’t leave a stone unturned. I had been given such a great opportunity and I grabbed it with both hands. I got to that first race and the other guys I didn’t think expected me to be so quick – so I took them by surprise. I was given a lot of respect, and they realised I wasn’t here to mess around not long into the season.”

And despite an agonising climax to his rookie year, he says defeat to Kimi Raikkonen was something to learn from and he is focused on coming back stronger in 2008. “To always keep your head up,” he said of what he had learned from 2007. “When I went into those last couple of races, the most important thing was I had the support of the team. “You can’t win all of the time.
“We didn’t win the championship, but perhaps that was a good thing, we can come back even stronger next year.”