The outfit had launched the career of Hamilton's future teammate and title rival Nico Rosberg, and Hamilton was up against a tough grid of future F1 drivers including Nelson Piquet Jr and Timo Glock.īattles with Piquet Jr, especially in the first rounds of the championship, set the tone for the season, but Hamilton began to find his stride and secured his first victory at the fifth race at the Nurburgring, despite earning a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The following year, the driver swapped teams to race with ASM in the Euroseries, dominating the grid on his way to 15 of 20 race victories, as well as taking victory at the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort.ĭespite his overwhelming junior career success, Hamilton was still looking for a way to make it into a Formula 1 seat, and in a bid to secure a route onto the grid moved to GP2 with ASM sister team ART for the 2006 season. Having proved his winning potential, Hamilton was given the opportunity to test an F1 car for the first time in late 2004 with McLaren. However, the decision would prove to be ill-fated as the driver retired in the first race due to a puncture and in the second a crash with teammate Tor Graves landed him in hospital.Īfter the crash, he switched to race still with Manor in the Euroseries F3, winning in his first outing at the Norisring street track, with further wins at the Bahrain F3 Superprix and the Macau F3 Grand Prix. With points to spare, Hamilton opted to miss the last two races of the year to make his British Formula 3 Championship debut. The future World Champion stayed in the series the following year, dominating with nine out of 10 wins in the final races of the season to take the title with room to spare ahead of his rivals. In 2002, he raced in Formula Renault UK, where he finished third in the championship, and fifth in Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup. In 2001, Hamilton brought his karting career to an end and moved into open-wheel racing in the British Formula Renault Winter series with Manor, finishing seventh in his first season.
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