Long-time McLaren Mercedes protégé Lewis Hamilton joined the Formula One grid in 2007 alongside double World Champion Fernando Alonso. The British racer, who first met McLaren boss Ron Dennis aged ten at the Autosport Awards ceremony, got the nod for the his F1 debut on the back of his impressive GP2 campaign in which he won the title in his first season. 18 months later he repaid that faith in becoming the youngest ever Formula One World Champion.

Hamilton, whose grandfather moved to the UK from Grenada in the 1950s, started his rise to the pinnacle of the sport driving karts in 1995 taking top honours in the Masters at Bercy in 2000.

A move to single seaters followed in 2001 with Hamilton taking part in the Formula Renault Winter Series finishing fifth overall. 2002 saw Hamilton back in Formula Renault, recording three wins with Manor Motorsport and finishing third in the championship standings. The championship followed in 2003 - again with Manor Motorsport - and Hamilton was very much into his stride. Wins in the F3 Euroseries before the championship followed in 2005 with ASM.

A jump up to GP2 did not daunt the British racer as he won the title in style from Nelson Piquet with ART Grand Prix. The McLaren Mercedes squad had Hamilton under its protective wing for years and with Juan Pablo Montoya making a sudden move to NASCAR; Hamilton's name was suddenly in the frame for the race seat with the team in 2007.

Picking Hamilton, who was just 22 when he made his Grand Prix debut, over long-time test driver Pedro de la Rosa, the British rising star faced a steep learning curve. Hamilton had proven up to the task in every category of motorsport and was far from overawed in the prospect of moving up to Formula One and teaming up with double World Champion Alonso.

Never before in the history of Formula One has a driver been so well prepared for his debut season and quite a season it would prove to be.

Hamilton's Grand Prix debut in Australia saw him finish third, quickly followed by runner-up positions in Malaysia, Bahrain, Spain and Monaco. Off track, Alonso got the message and the relationship was already on a downwards spiral. Hamilton won his first Grand Prix in Montreal after a flawless drive and followed it up a week later at Indianapolis with another win.

Against all the odds, Hamilton was firmly in command of the championship at the mid-point of the season. An accident in qualifying at the European Grand Prix and then a troubled race ended his unprecedented nine race podium run but Hamilton bounced back with a commanding win in Hungary as relations between his team and team-mate became even further strained.

A fine drive in appalling conditions at Fuji Speedway brought Hamilton his fourth win of the season and with two rounds remaining, enjoyed a commanding 12 point lead in the championship.

The final two races however saw the pressure get to Hamilton and the McLaren team. The failure to bring Hamilton in for new tyres in China when it was clear that he was struggling with tyre wear was a major error and the failure to finish was the end result. Still, a fifth position in Brazil would bring Hamilton the championship regardless of what rivals Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen could achieve.

After qualifying second at Interlagos behind Felipe Massa, Hamilton found himself caught out at the start of the race allowing Alonso and Raikkonen to pass. Trying to regain the positions, Hamilton ran off track and dropped back down the order. A mechanical glitch lost him further time but it was the decision to switch from a two stop to a three stop strategy that finally ruined his race.

Taking the chequered flag in seventh position and with Raikkonen winning from Massa and Alonso, Hamilton lost the championship by one point to Raikkonen and ended his season equal on points with Alonso.

While Hamilton and McLaren Mercedes seemed to throw away the championship in those final two Grand Prix, Hamilton had a stunning debut season and soon penned a long-term deal with the team that will see him race for them until the end of the 2012 season.

In just his second season of the sport, Hamilton headed to the 2008 season finale undoubtedly feeling a certain sense of déjà-vu. Fifth position would bring him the title regardless of what title rival Massa could achieve.

Up until that point, it had been something of a roller-coaster of a season for the McLaren driver. He began the season with victory in Melbourne, adding further wins at Monaco, Britain, Germany and China. There were however errors in Spain, Canada, France, Belgium, Italy and Japan that compromised his season.

The season-long battle with Massa came to a dramatic conclusion in Brazil with Massa taking the win and Hamilton scrabbling ahead of Timo Glock in the final turn on the final lap at the last race of the season to secure the all-important fifth position points needed for the championship.

Hamilton took the title glory and completely dominated new team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, but can count himself a little fortunate that errors from Ferrari made Massa's task so much harder than it could - and probably - should have been. Hamilton has proven his skill and pace, but arguably his debut season was more impressive than his championship season.

For 2009, Hamilton has the confidence and now two years of experience under his belt as he looks to continue his remarkable career at the pinnacle of the sport.