page_title: Formula One career of Lewis Hamilton
section_title: 2008 season: Youngest-ever world champion
hierarchical_section_title: Formula One career of Lewis Hamilton / McLaren / 2008 season: Youngest-ever world champion
caption_attribution_description: Lewis Hamilton / F1 / World Champion 2008 Brazilian GP
context_page_description: Lewis Hamilton started his professional Formula One career in 2007, driving for McLaren. He won his first title in 2008 with the team to become the then-youngest champion in the history of the sport. After four more seasons with McLaren during which he failed to finish higher than fourth in the standings, Hamilton moved to Mercedes, with whom he has won a further five titles in 2014, 2015 and from 2017–2019.
context_section_description: A month after Alonso's departure, it was confirmed that Heikki Kovalainen would drive the second car for McLaren in 2008 alongside Hamilton, who signed a new five-year multimillion-pound contract to stay with the team until 2012. Hamilton won the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix, from pole. In Malaysia, he finished fifth from ninth on the grid, serving a penalty for impeding Nick Heidfeld's qualifying lap. He was back on the podium in Spain where he finished third, before finishing second in Turkey, and winning the Monaco Grand Prix to take the lead of the championship. In Montreal, Hamilton crashed into the back of Räikkönen during the race, after failing to see that the Finn was waiting at a red light at the end of the pit lane as the whole field went past under the guide of the safety car, causing both cars to retire. Hamilton was given a 10-position grid penalty for the next race, the French Grand Prix.
  Despite an error in qualifying that saw him start fourth, Hamilton went on to win the British Grand Prix in difficult, wet conditions in a performance regarded as one of the best of his career. In the next race at Hockenheim, Hamilton won despite a tactical blunder by his team's strategists. Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix, but was later judged to have gained an unfair advantage by cutting a chicane to avoid hitting Räikkönen. McLaren said that their telemetry showed Hamilton backed off to let Räikkönen past but Hamilton was given a 25-second penalty, which relegated him to third and handed title rival Massa victory. Hamilton's lead in the Drivers' Championship was cut to two points, and an appeal by McLaren to the FIA World Motor Sport Council was rejected. The Italian Grand Prix saw Hamilton finish seventh, and Hamilton's lead in the championship was reduced to one point.
  Hamilton finished third at the next race in Singapore, while Massa failed to score any points, allowing Hamilton to increase his championship lead to seven points. In Fuji, Hamilton was given a drive-through penalty for forcing other cars off the track when he made an error on the first lap. Before he could serve the penalty Hamilton attempted to pass Massa, who hit him after making a mistake. Massa was later given a drive-through penalty for this move and Hamilton finished twelfth. With just two races to go, Hamilton led the World Championship by five points from Massa. In China, Hamilton won the race to take a seven-point lead in the World Championship into the last race of the season. Speaking afterwards, Hamilton said "All weekend we have had God on our side as always, and the team did a phenomenal job in preparing the car, which has been a dream to drive."
  At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Hamilton needed to finish at least fifth, if Massa won the race, to secure the World Championship. Just before the race began a rain shower struck and Hamilton ran in fourth place before dropping down to sixth after pitting for dry tyres. Intermittent rainfall meant all drivers stopped multiple times between wet and dry tyres and, with three laps remaining and Massa leading the race, Hamilton was running in fifth and needed only to maintain position to secure the title. On the penultimate lap, Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel passed Hamilton, meaning the British driver started the final lap in sixth position and looking unable to retake fifth place from the German. However, on the final lap he and Vettel made up an 18-second gap to overtake Timo Glock, who was struggling on dry tyres, on the last corner to re-take fifth place and deny race-winner Massa the title by one point. This made Hamilton the youngest driver to win the World Drivers' Championship, the first black driver, and the first British driver to win the World Championship since Damon Hill in 1996.
caption: Hamilton and team celebrate his maiden Formula One World Championship title.
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