Lewis does the business in OZ

It has been a successful day for British motorsport with Lewis Hamilton finishing third in his McLaren on his Formula One debut at Melbourne, Australia. As expected Lewis was super quick from lap one and managed to outbrake his Mclaren team-mate and twice World Champion, Fernando Alonso going into turn one. Hamilton drove his Mclaren on the limit throughout the whole race and as a consequence was lapping quicker than his team-mate and only lost second place to him due to a slightly weaker pit stop strategy.

He said: " I want to thank the team for all their hard work this weekend, the car was perfect. To finish third and on the podium in my first Grand Prix is fantastic, I'm really happy with the result. Ferrari were a bit quicker than us (McLaren) this weekend but I'm sure we will be able to close the gap to them."

Anthony Davidson in his Super Aguri Honda was surprisingly quick this weekend and after a promising qualifying session putting the car tenth on the grid, ahead of Jenson Button in the newer car he was unfortunate to struggle in the race. The car did not get off the line well at all and left him in 21st place at the end of lap one.

However after an impressive afternoons work Anthony brought the car to the finish in a creditable 16th place. He said: "I am happy to have finished the race, that was the objective, there is some more work to do with the car so I am confident we can get quicker. He continued: "Today has really worn me out, my back aches and I am looking forward to relaxing."

Anthony Davidson's performance in qualifying will undoubtedly have left sister team, Honda, wondering whether they have made the right decision this year regarding their driver line up after a less than spectacular performance.

Jenson Button struggled to achieve a setup on the car which he was happy with and suffered major oversteer in qualifying leaving him a poor fourteenth on the grid. Whilst in the race the car suffered from severe understeer. After adding a lot more front wing for his third and final stint the car remained virtually undriveable and consequently well off the pace.

Jenson said: "The car was understeering everywhere, it is not good enough. I think something was causing the front wing to stall which we can fix as Rubens (Barrichello) was not struggling with it. It is just a pity it happened today in a race situation." There is no doubt that Honda have a lot of work to do over the coming test sessions if they are to be running on the pace in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in three weeks. They have been the team which has been the biggest underachiever relative to expectations so far and will be keen to turn that around.

The father of British motor racing, David Coulthard, was impressive all weekend running on the pace of the Renault's. However an uncharacteristic mistake from DC saw his 2007 debut race finish in the gravel trap having ripped off the front left suspension after an extremely late lunge on Alexander Wurz's Renault.

Although it is not the start the team wanted to this years campaign they can be happy with their performance. The car proved quick and with experienced members like Adrian Newey on-board as this years technical director, expect the car to get much quicker and become recognised as a regular points scorer.

The driver of the afternoon was without a doubt Lewis Hamilton however. His mind has been on Formula One from the moment he stepped into a Kart fifteen years ago at Rye House. He is mentally and physically the fittest driver on the grid and more importantly the "hungriest."

There is no doubt that Lewis will win races this year and go on to win a World Championship within the next three years depending on his circumstances. He has a trait which few people and even fewer racing drivers have, and that is his ability to constantly want to win and improve without allowing outside distractions get in his way. In Formula One, that is a massive task.

Lewis has been trained by his father, Tony, from the age of seven to speak properly and focus on what he wants and as a consequence is not fazed by the media pressures on him at all. Michael Schumacher was the last person to have this trait and before that Ayrton Senna could also make a claim. There is no doubt, Lewis has it. Schumacher's Formula One records are going to get broken. Formula One has a new star in Lewis Hamilton and without a doubt will be the next British World Champion.

MC

Copyright ©: Michael Chen, March 18th 2007