page_title: Formula One career of Lewis Hamilton
section_title: 2009 season
hierarchical_section_title: Formula One career of Lewis Hamilton / McLaren / 2009 season
caption_attribution_description: English: Lewis Hamilton at 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix, Sepang, Malaysia.
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: Hamilton started the season opener of the 2009 season in Australia from eighteenth on the grid after the McLaren team incurred a penalty for changing his gearbox during qualifying. Hamilton benefited from a late crash between Vettel and Kubica to move into fourth place by the end of the race. He was then promoted to third after Jarno Trulli was penalised for overtaking him under safety-car conditions. During a post-race stewards' hearing, Hamilton and McLaren officials told stewards they had not purposely let Trulli pass, which was contradicted by the release of the McLaren race radio communication. Hamilton was then disqualified from the race for providing "misleading evidence" during the stewards' hearing. He later privately apologised to FIA race director Charlie Whiting for having lied to the stewards. He went on to describe the incident as the hardest week of his life, and considered quitting Formula One.
  After failing to score points in five consecutive races, Hamilton made public calls to scrap the car and a former team owner and commentator Eddie Jordan described the MP4-24 as "possibly the worst car McLaren have ever designed". However, after bringing upgrades to the car, McLaren and Hamilton's fortunes were reversed at the Hungaroring, the tenth round of the season where he won the race to take his 10th career win and the first for a KERS-equipped car. McLaren's return to form continued in Valencia, where Hamilton finished second. At the Singapore Grand Prix, Hamilton took his second win of the season. He finished third at the Japanese and Brazilian Grands Prix. In the inaugural Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Hamilton led the race, but retired on lap 20 due to a rear brake problem, his first technical-related retirement in Formula One. Hamilton finished the season in fifth place in the World Drivers' Championship.
caption: Hamilton driving for McLaren at the 2009 Malaysian Grand Prix
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 30D", "Image Orientation": "0", "Image XResolution": "350", "Image YResolution": "350", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Picasa 3.0", "Image DateTime": "2009:04:06 19:46:09", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "202", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1016", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5238", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1000", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:04:05 17:47:23", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:04:05 17:47:23", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "326559/32768", "EXIF ApertureValue": "1111/256", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "210", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "973", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "569", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "233600/59", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "233600/59", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "869fea439819c03d63bd6ba00d5b75d8"}