MSA congratulates Lewis Hamilton
The Motor Sports Association, the governing body of UK motor
sport, congratulates British driver Lewis Hamilton on being
crowned the 2006 GP2 Champion and on his subsequent test with
the McLaren-Mercedes Formula 1 team today.
Lewis, aged 21, secured the GP2 title at the recent Italian
Formula 1 Grand Prix meeting at Monza. In total, he ended
the season with 14 podium results from 22 rounds, including
five race victories.
Today (Wednesday) he has conducted the first of two days
of testing for the McLaren-Mercedes team on Silverstone’s
British F1 GP circuit.
Lewis’s racing career started in the early Nineties
when he set out on a hugely successful period racing karts
in the UK. In 1996 and 1997 he won four UK karting titles
and went on to be ranked number one in the world. It was also
in the UK that he started his car racing career, moving into
the Formula Renault UK category at the end of 2001. In 2003
he won that title with the Manor Motorsport team, which had
previously taken Kimi Raikkonen to the same crown. Lewis then
progressed into the Euroseries Formula 3 championship, which
he also won in 2005.
Colin Hilton, Chief Executive of the MSA, says: "Everyone
in British motor sport should celebrate Lewis’s superb
achievements in GP2, particularly considering that this was
his first season in the category and he was up against far
more experienced drivers, some with F1 backgrounds.
"Nobody will forget the huge wave of public support
that Lewis enjoyed when he did the double in front of his
home crowd on British GP weekend at Silverstone in June.
"His championship success is proof again that the UK
continues to produce world class motor sport champions and
is also a great inspiration for every young driver racing
on these shores.
"It is extremely fitting that his first full-blown test
with the McLaren-Mercedes F1 team, that has supported his
career since 1998, should come at Silverstone. Whether he
races in F1 in 2007 remains to be seen, but the MSA is right
behind him and wishes him the very best for his future career."
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