Lewis Hamilton wins again

There's no doubt 2008 will be the year Lewis Hamilton is crowned Formula 1 world champion.

As a rookie last year he was one point - indeed one agonising slip in the wet - away from a sensational drivers' title.

Still just 23, he has outclassed the veterans and outperformed the current and past world champions.

His mastery in the rain was highlighted yet again at Silverstone (in July 2008) and the rain is when true champions step up to the plate to show their brilliance.

Now, after a midseason hiccup he is looking so in control, so dominant, so unflinchable that you just cannot see any other driver going to nose to nose with him.

He has the skill, he has the coolness under pressure, he has the passing manoeuvres. No-one else comes close. He has Ayrton Senna's confidence with out the arrogance, he has Alain Prost's cleverness without the crooked nose.

In fact, it is difficult to understand exactly why he failed to lift the drivers' title last season. His team-mate last season Fernando Alonso, who at the time was world champion, was made to look variously stupid, bitter, petty and bewildered as he was frequently embarrassed by the young Brit.

Probably it was only McLaren's insistence on equality between both their drivers which cost either one of them the title - both were one point behind Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen after the decisive final race. There will be no such cock-ups this year at McLaren.

Heikki Kovalainen conveniently moved over to let Hamilton past at Hockenheim on Sunday as the new championship leader blitzed his way from fifth to first after a poor pit-stop strategy decision by his bosses.

Team orders are banned in Formula 1 - perhaps the most stupid rule in sport - but there can be no complaints from independent observers, such was the ease that Hamilton pulled off moves to pass Felipe Massa and Nelson Piquet Jnr in the final few laps.