勇敢に立ち向かう, gifted and a 闘士，戦闘機 to the finish - 吊りくさび Hamilton drove like a 支持する／優勝者 にもかかわらず 衝突／不一致 with Sebastian Vettel

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It wasn't the race he 手配中の，お尋ね者. It wasn't the race any 広大な／多数の／重要な 支持する／優勝者 would have wished for on 載冠（式）／即位（式） day. Ninth is not where 吊りくさび Hamilton ever wants to be.

But it was, unmistakably, the 運動 of a 支持する／優勝者. Somehow, Hamilton overcame a 衝突／不一致, a 穴をあける and a place at the 支援する of the field to become the greatest driver in British モーター racing history.

Given this country's 記録，記録的な／記録する in the sport ― 10 支持する／優勝者s, more than any other nation ― that is no empty accolade. And there was something fitting about having to fight his way through the field to （人命などを）奪う，主張する his prize. There has always been something of the streetfighter in Hamilton.?

にもかかわらず finishing ninth, 吊りくさび Hamilton drove like a 支持する／優勝者 at the Mexican Grand Prix?

Hamilton celebrates winning his fourth F1 world 選手権 after a sensational season?

Scrappy. It is the word he uses to 述べる his しつけ in Stevenage. The karts, and the 支援する streets where they were built or cheaply bought, the red and white flask from race days that he still keeps as a 思い出の品, no longer filled with ready-mix chicken and noodle soup. 'It was very scrappy,' he says. 'You couldn't get scrappier.'

Much like Sunday's struggle in Mexico. Not since Michael Schumacher retired from the final race at Adelaide in 1994 has a driver finished so low 負かす／撃墜する the field to clinch a 選手権. But, as with Schumacher, まっただ中に the scrappiness there was greatness, too.

And as he stands at the pinnacle of his sport this mornin g, the first Briton to 勝利，勝つ four 選手権s, it is Hamilton's most combative instincts, his 乗り気 to fight, that has 始める，決める him apart from both 前任者s and 同時代のs.?

支持者s flock の上に the 回路・連盟 to 迎える／歓迎する Hamilton and congratulate the 32-year-old

When he started out, Eddie Jordan wondered whether Hamilton had the necessary 侵略 to be a 支持する／優勝者. He seemed too 井戸／弁護士席-mannered, too polite, his rough 辛勝する／優位s smoothed by a young life on the McLaren 生産／産物 line.

We know better now. Hamilton may have said and done the 権利 things 支援する then, but a scrappy, （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域ing heart remained. The 手がかり（を与える）s were always there: his incredible 新人 season, four 勝利，勝つs, eight other podium finishes and a point off the 支持する／優勝者, Kimi Raikkonen and his Ferrari. 速く followed by his first 肩書を与える in 2008 ― the only one this century to be won by a driver without the best car.

And now these, the Hamilton years ― three 選手権s in four seasons, an at hlete who knows his own mind, 運動ing and living with the audacious flamboyance of ages past.?

Hamilton has now （太陽，月の）食／失墜d fellow Brit Jackie Stewart's total of three world 肩書を与えるs

Hamilton's hero is Ayrton Senna and it will be bittersweet to have passed his three drivers' 肩書を与えるs, but at least some of the Brazilian's spirit remains. Hamilton is no buttoned-負かす／撃墜する automaton. The car may be programmed, but he is not. A year ago, in Abu Dhabi, his 手段 of taking the lead and then deliberately slowing to 支援する Nico Rosberg into the pack, could have cost him his 契約 with Mercedes. He didn't care. The only way he could 勝利，勝つ the drivers' 選手権 was if Rosberg finished off the podium.

He did all he could to try to make that happen, just as Sunday he took 抱擁する 危険s to pass Fernando Alonso late and 安全な・保証する ninth place, when 10th would have 十分であるd given Sebastian Vettel's position. And he knew that, too.

It's the car, say Hamilton's detractors. Anyone can 勝利，勝つ with the best car. And, yes, the importance of 科学（工学）技術 is inescapable. Yet if the man with the best car always won, how to explain Hamilton's 勝利 in 200 8, the 肩書を与える that places him beside some of the greatest drivers in history ― just three in 31 years having 勝利d without the best car ― 含むing Schumacher? Senna never won a drivers' 選手権 in an inferior machine. Nor has Vettel or Alonso.?

Hamilton sprays シャンペン酒 from the podium after the 結論 of the race

Yet when Hamilton 安全な・保証するd his first 選手権, McLaren were second to Ferrari in the 建設者s' 選手権 ― more points, 21, between first and second, then between McLaren and BMW-Sauber in third. Hamilton （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 Felipe Massa to the prize and Sunday's race played out like a career rerun. Past Massa, past Alonso, Vettel 否定するd にもかかわらず his best 成果／努力s.

Jackie Stewart's three 肩書を与えるs are bunched in a five-year （一定の）期間, Jim Clark's two were won over three years before his career was tragically curtailed. Hamilton now （期間が）わたるs a １０年間, four 肩書を与えるs in 10 years, as Schumacher did, seven in 11. He is in that company now, and with a new challenge ― Max Verstappen's race 勝利，勝つ once ag ain giving 約束 of a 広大な／多数の／重要な 競争 to come.

That, for now, is to be 心配するd. This morning, Hamilton can drink it in. Britain's greatest driver. Not because he has the best car, but because he is scrappy, and 勇敢に立ち向かう, and astonishingly gifted. He deserves every garland and 尊敬の印 that comes his way.?