Lewis Hamilton's learning curve just got shorter -- a lot shorter.
The 22-year-old Englishman, the first black driver in Formula One history, added his first F1 victory to an already remarkable career start by winning the crash-filled Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday.
And he made it look easy.
PHOTO: AP
Hamilton started from the pole, also for the first time. Apart from losing the lead for three laps when he made his first of two pit stops, he led all the way and was never challenged.
The youngster has six consecutive top-three finishes in six starts, something no other first-year F1 driver has accomplished. He is now atop the standings, eight points ahead of Fernando Alonso, his teammate and the two-time and reigning F1 champion.
"This is history," Hamilton said, grinning.
The Mercedes McLaren driver's only competition during the 70-lap race came from BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld.
The only thing that kept the race close at all was accidents -- four full-course caution flags that wiped out the leads Hamilton built with seeming ease. He kept winning the restarts, and beat Heidfeld to the finish by 4.3 seconds.
"It was a fairly simple race, apart from the restarts," Hamilton said. "On those, I was just trying to keep the tires warm and not make a mistake. The last few laps I was just counting down."
After he had won the race, Hamilton scrambled out of his cockpit. He thrust his arms in the air and jumped up and down. He then bounced to the ground, trotted to a barrier and jumped across to dive into the midst of his crew, hugging everyone in sight.
"It's been a fantastic season already," he said. "We've had six podiums and I've been ready for quite some time for the win -- it's just been a matter of when and where. The team gave me the best car and I had no problems during the race at all."
Heidfeld was almost as happy with his runner-up finish, matching his career best.
"I think I had a very good chance to finish second even in normal race conditions, without so many safety cars [on the track] and without Fernando [Alonso] being penalized," Heidfeld said.
Alonso started alongside his McLaren teammate on the front row. He made a mistake on the start when he drove off the course in the first turn and allowed Heidfeld to dive past into second.
That was just the beginning of a very bad day for Alonso, who was hit with a penalty for pitting too soon during one of the full-course cautions. That set the Spaniard back to 14th, but he got back as high as sixth before two more off-course excursions slowed him. Alonso was passed two laps from the finish by Takuma Sato and finished seventh.
Hamilton, who came into the race tied with Alonso at the top of the standings, knows he will have to work to stay there, beginning next Sunday at the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis.
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