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Lewis Hamilton is paraded in front of the world’s media after celebrating his second world
championship triumph in Abu Dhabi

ABU DHABI. — Lewis Hamilton is the King of the Track again. History fell to the 29-year-old from Stevenage under the dark sky of Abu Dhabi, the fireworks greeting only the fourth Britain to win multiple Formula One world titles. The fourth in the line to the throne – Prince Harry of Wales – went to the pit wall to say: ‘You are an absolute legend.’ They told him, too, that he was Mercedes-Benz’s first champion since a chap called Juan-Manuel Fangio, in 1955. He was the greatest of them all, but Hamilton is hardly a slouch. Hamilton’s response was simple – ‘Wooo-Hooo…World Champion’.

He even managed to pass Nico Rosberg on the penultimate lap to take the race win and the title by 67 points. Double scoring was an irrelevance, thankfully.

Add Hamilton’s name to Graham Hill, Jim Clark and Sir Jackie Stewart in the pantheon of British double title winners. Six years separated Hamilton’s first and second championships, but now the greatness he promised as a rookie of prodigious gifts has been rewarded as richly as his talent warrants.

The race had been set up perfectly by Rosberg searing to pole position by of 0.386sec 24 hours before. Saturday has been his day all year.

But it was Sunday that counts and after a weekend of fraying nerves, it took Hamilton even less time – a blink of an eye – to establish a lead in the race. Rosberg was stuck to his grid place like glue.

Hamilton powered ahead, swept to his right in front of Rosberg and flew threw the first left-hand corner.

By the time Rosberg came round it, Hamilton was in Dubai. Or another planet.

A weekend of visible jitters, exasperated answers in press conferences, and false protestations that he was cooler than a cucumber in a tumbler of Hendrick’s – all consigned to history in one faultless move.

From that moment on the grid until the end of the 55th and concluding lap, the outcome seemed inevitable.

But, still, we held our breath for we had been to the brink of championship glory before with Lewis, the master of suspense.

In 2007 he started the last race seven points ahead of Kimi Raikkonen only to suffer gearbox failure, finish seventh and miss the title by a one point.

A year later, he again took a seven-point lead into the finale, this time in Interlagos, against Felipe Massa. Hamilton was in sixth place as Massa crossed the line but scampered through the rain to move up to third on the final lap. There is more drama around this boy than Shakespeare.

So, heavens, we could not entirely discount the unpredictable, even though Rosberg has converted just three of his 10 poles into victory this season.

How must it have felt for Hamilton’s family who were late arrivals at the track, despite being told by their son he was better focused going to work without them being attendance?

His father Anthony paced up and down as his wont. Nicole Scherzinger, step-mother Linda and brother Nic, in a Mercedes top, were all in the garage, their eyes fixed on the timing screens.

Rosberg had a race to forget as he lost the lead on the first corner of the race and then suffered with a power failure.

But before the sun had set, in the twilight of the Abu Dhabi evening, Hamilton had gone into a comfortable lead. By his first stop, 10 laps in, the gap was 2.7sec. Rosberg stayed out a lap longer but it did him no good on rubber that was only getting worse.

Rosberg’s engineer Tony Ross came over the radio to explain their remedial strategy: ‘Keep the gap to him (Hamilton) manageable, and we’ll go long.’

But within minutes, the German veered off track. That was nothing compared to the problems with his car’s battery gizmos: the energy recovery system (ERS). ‘It’s failed,’ he said over the radio.

That was costing him 160bhp and three seconds a lap. Hamilton came in for new tyres as his time was dipping – Scherzinger bottom lip quivered – but he only needed to be re-shod. He came out and zoomed straight past Rosberg. Both men were totally fair and clean. Hamilton was away.

Now Rosberg had just one chance, scoring heavily enough to take the title if Hamilton were to stop. ‘Just get me into the top five or six as safely as possible,’ he said. Actually, he would need fifth mathematically to have a hope in hell. — Mailsport.