He has 100 of them, but where did Lewis Hamilton win his first grand prix? He’s the only driver to ever hit three figures in Formula One, but when did he take the chequered flag for the first time?
Lewis Hamilton’s first grand prix win
Hamilton’s first F1 win came in his debut season of 2007 – when he was driving for McLaren.
The reigning GP2 champion stepped up to McLaren to partner reigning double world champion Fernando Alonso.
Hamilton started the season well, taking five consecutive podiums to start the season – including third on debut in Australia.
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His first F1 win would come in the sixth race of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
Hamilton’s weekend started well as he took his first F1 pole position, with Alonso riding shotgun on the front-row.
As the reigning world champion, Alonso had expected rookie Hamilton to be deferential to him and support his quest for a third world title…
Hamilton controls race for first grand prix win
At the start, Alonso tried to go around the outside of Hamilton at Turn 1, to get the inside line for Turn 2.
Hamilton gently squeezed the sister McLaren out wide, as Alonso ran into the grass and dropped back into the pack.
By lap 15, Alonso had gone wide at Turn 1 two more times and was running fourth.
Seven tours laters, Adrian Sutil crashed his Force India, bringing out the safety car.
Once that had been cleared up, racing resumed for one lap.
Running down to the hairpin on Lap 26, Robert Kubica’s BMW tagged the back of Jarno Trulli’s Toyota.
Kubica was launched into a concrete barrier on the inside, hit another car who had already retired, before flying across the track.
Debris flew everywhere as the car disintegrated.
Kubica came to rest against the armco barrier on the outside, of the track.
Fortunately, he only sustained a sprained ankle and a concussion.
He would miss the next race at Indianapolis, as a young Sebastian Vettel made his F1 debut in the Pole’s place…
Meanwhile, up front, Hamilton controlled this, and a further two safety car restarts expertly.
He crossed the line 4.343s clear of Nick Heidfeld of BMW as Williams’ Alexander Wurz claimed a final F1 podium.
Since 2007, Hamilton has gone taken seven wins in Canada.
Only in Britain and Hungary has he more wins (eight).
Hamilton’s F1 wins in Canada
- 2007 – McLaren
- 2010 – McLaren
- 2012 – McLaren
- 2015 – Mercedes
- 2016 – Mercedes
- 2017 – Mercedes
- 2019 – Mercedes
Alonso’s bad day
To cap off Alonso’s torrid day, he suffered the ignominy of being passed late on by Takuma Sato’s Super Aguri.
Super Aguri was an operation set up especially for Sato by Honda, after it dumped him from the works squad.
The small team competed between the start of 2006 and the fourth race of 2008 in Spain – after which it disappeared.
Sato scored the squad’s first point in Spain 2007, before taking their best ever result in Canada.
He passed Alonso with three laps to go and finished sixth – the Spaniard coming home seventh.
Sato’s teammate, and now Sky F1 pundit Anthony Davidson was set for a points finish too, but hit a groundhog that ruined his afternoon.
