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Written by Brian Austin
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Monday, 11 June 2007 |
 It was a big weekend for motorsport but not least because 22 year old rookie Lewis Hamilton won his first Formula 1 race in Montreal. The victory was sweet on several notes, first and most obviously because Hamilton, a British driver, piloted his British built McLaren back into the winner's circle for the first time since David Coulthard's victory at the Australian Grand Prix in 2003. More importantly the young rookie finished well ahead of his team mate and former World Champion Fernando Alonso.
All of this of course is overshadowed by the fact that Hamilton is the first black man to win a Grand Prix in Formula 1. Now you can compare him to Jackie Robinson or Tiger Woods but as I've stated before that doesn't do justice to a guy who is, and probably always will be one of the most talented F1 drivers of the modern era. He, like Alonso, is young, quick and rarely makes a misstep or place a wheel wrong and that is what is needed to secure the World Championship. He is not part of some sort of F1 diversity program and was in fact recruited by McLaren boss Ron Dennis nearly a decade before he ever drove at the top tier of the sport. I think that the entire UK, and in fact the world, should celebrate and remember this moment not as the day that Hamilton broke the "color barrier" but as the launching point of potentially one of the greatest British drivers in F1 history.
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