Alonso beat Hamilton in the Italian and Belgian Grands Prix. Hamilton now had a two-point lead in the title race. His lead increased to 12 points after winning the Japanese Grand Prix. The race was in heavy rain, and Alonso crashed out of the race. After the race, there was investigated by the race stewards (officials). They looked at Hamilton's actions behind the safety car. Both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber crash out of the race while following Hamilton. The race stewards did not find that anybody did anything against the rules.
Hamilton earned the pole position in China. The race saw both dry and wet weather conditions. Hamilton retired from the race. He was experiencing heavy tyre wear. He tried to enter the pits. He ran wide and into the gravel trap. His car was stuck, and Hamilton recording the first retirement of his Formula One career. Hamilton went into the final race of the season with a four point lead.
In the Brazilian Grand Prix, Hamilton would only manage to score two championship points, as he finished the race in seventh position. Hamilton was passed by Räikkönen at the start. He was blocked in by Massa and Räikkönen into the first corner, and caught off balance. Hamilton was passed by Alonso in Turn 3. Hamilton attempted to re-pass Alonso in Turn 4. He ran wide, and dropped to eighth place. Then a problem started on lap 9. Hamilton had a gearbox problem. He was stuck in neutral and could not select any gears. Hamilton reset the settings on his steering wheel. The gearbox started working again. He had lost 40 seconds while his car was coasting.
For most of the race, Massa was leading and Räikkönen was in second. If the race had ended this way, Hamilton would have become world champion. During the second round of pit stops, Räikkönen the lead from Massa. Räikkönen won the race to become the 2007 Formula One World Champion.
Hamilton finished the season with four wins, and second place in the World Drivers' Championship with 109 points, ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso.
The first sign that Hamilton was unhappy with his team appeared after he finished second at Monaco. His post-race comments suggested he had been forced into a supporting role. The FIA looked to see if McLaren had broken rules by enforcing team orders. FIA determined that McLaren did not break any rules. During qualifying at the Hungarian Grand Prix, Alonso held Hamilton up in the pits. This caused Hamilton to miss one last lap to try and earn the pole position. Alonso was moved back to the sixth starting position. This moved Hamilton to the pole. McLaren was docked constructors championship points. Hamilton said he thought Alonso's penalty was "quite light if anything" and only regretted the loss of constructors' points. As a result of these events, the relationship between Hamilton and Alonso temporarily collapsed. The pair were not on speaking terms for a short period.
After the Japanese Grand Prix, Alonso felt that a race stewards' verdict had settled the championship in Hamilton's favor. He said: "I'm not thinking of this championship anymore, it's been decided off the track. The drivers' briefing has no purpose. You go there to hear what Charlie Whiting and the other officials say. Twenty one drivers have an opinion, Charlie and the officials another, and so it's like talking to a wall".
After the season was over, Alonso and McLaren terminated their contract on 2 November 2007. Both sides agreed to the departure of Alonso.
In January 2008, Hamilton signed a new five-year contract to stay with McLaren-Mercedes until the end of the 2012 season. For the season, Heikki Kovalainen would drive the second car for McLaren-Mercedes.
The first race of the 2008 season, the Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton qualified on pole and won the race. having position. In the Bahrain, Hamilton destroyed his car during a practice crash. He used a spare chassis and took third place in qualifying. In the race, he crashed into the back of Alonso's car and finished 13th. He was back on the podium in Spain finishing third. Hamilton finished second in Turkey, and won the Monaco Grand Prix a two weeks later, putting him back into the championship lead.
He qualified on the pole in Montreal but he crashed into the back of Kimi Räikkönen during the race. There was a red light at the end of the pit lane. Hamilton did not see that Räikkönen was stopped at the light. Hamilton was given a 10 position starting grid penalty for the next race, the French Grand Prix. Hamilton went on to win the British Grand Prix in difficult, wet conditions. This was called one of his best performance to date. Hamilton himself said in the post race press conference that it was his most difficult and most meaningful win.
In the next race at Hockenheim, Hamilton started from pole position, and won by 9 seconds.
Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix, but this win was called into question. He was left the race track in a chicane avoid hitting Kimi Räikkönen. The race officials said that gave Hamilton an unfair advantage. McLaren said that their monitoring equipment showed Hamilton slowed down to let Räikkönen past. Hamilton was given a 25 second penalty. The penalty dropping him to third place. McLaren appealed the penalty to the FIA World Motor Sport Council. The appeal was rejected. The council said the case was inadmissible.
At Fuji, Hamilton took pole in qualifying. Felipe Massa was his closest rival for the Championship title. Massa could only manage to qualify fifth. As the race began Kimi Räikkönen made a good start, and passed Hamilton. Hamilton ran wide at the first corner. This forced some of the drivers behind him to go off the track. Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for his actions. On the second lap, when Hamilton tried to pass Massa at turn 10, Hamilton pulled alongside and made a move to pass him. Massa then ran wide and both cars hit. Hamilton car went into a spin. Massa was given a drive-through penalty for this move. Hamilton dropped down to last place. He managed to finish the race in 12th position, but earned no points.
At the Chinese Grand Prix, Hamilton was much faster than all the other cars in practice. He qualified on pole position. He went on to win the race, and a 7 point lead in the World Championship.
The Brazilian Grand Prix was the last race of the year. Hamilton needed to finish at least fifth the to win the World Championship. After a hard fought race Hamilton was in fifth place. In the closing laps of the race, it started to rain. Sebastian Vettel passed Hamilton for fifth position.
Massa had already won the race. With Hamilton in sixth place, it looked like Massa would win the title. During the final lap both Vettel and Hamilton passed Timo Glock. Glock was using dry-weather tyres and Hamilton was using wet-weather tyres. This put Hamilton back into fifth place. Hamilton's pass gave him one more point than Massa.
Hamilton had won the 2008 Formula One World Championship. He became the youngest driver to win the title, as well as the first black driver. He is also the first British driver to win the World Championship since Damon Hill in 1996.
On 4 February 2008, Hamilton was verbally taunted and abused during pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya in Catalonia. Several Spanish spectators wore black face paint and black wigs. They wore shirts saying "Hamilton's ". Hamilton had become unpopular in Spain because of his rivalry with Spaniard Fernando Alonso. The FIA warned Spanish authorities not to let this behavior continue. the FIA announced on 13 February 2008 that it will launch a "Race Against Racism" campaign.