Watch: Lewis Hamilton’s stunning start on the way to a podium finish at his maiden F1 race

Lewis Hamilton lined up for his maiden F1 race, the 2007 Australian Grand Prix, in fourth place, behind Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso and Nick Heidfeld. Come race day, the young British driver was jumped by Robert Kubica, dropping him to fifth position.

Surrounded by more experienced drivers, the rookie seemed outmatched. A crafty Hamilton, however, cut across the track, braking later than his opponents, and overtook Alonso, Heidfeld and Kubica in one clean move to get himself into podium contention.

Throughout the first stint, the then 22-year-old had enough pace on hand to keep team-mate and reigning world champion Alonso at bay. When Heidfeld in P2 made his first pit stop on lap fifteen, Hamilton leaped into second place and was comfortably keeping up with Raikkonen ahead.

Hamilton made his pit stop a lap after Raikkonen and re-joined ahead of Heidfeld. Until the latter part of the race, the future seven-time world champion seemed to be on course for a P2 finish on his debut. An excellent middle stint from Alonso, however, helped the Spaniard overcut Hamilton for P2 in the second set of pitstops.

Nevertheless, Lewis Hamilton had shown the world why McLaren had been so eager to promote him to the top level of the sport. The young driver had lived up to his reputation in junior formulae.

Five races later, he would go on to record his race victory number 1 of 103, and counting. He would, however, lose that year’s title to Kimi Raikkonen by just a solitary point.

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Lewis Hamilton outshone teammate Fernando Alonso in a controversy-filled season

To say Lewis Hamilton’s debut season with McLaren was anything but straightforward would be an understatement. The 2007 season is one of the most controversial seasons in F1 history.

The year witnessed the public fallout between McLaren team boss Ron Dennis and Fernando Alonso as well as a bitter rivalry between the latter and Hamilton. To top it all off, a cheating scandal led to McLaren being investigated by FIA and subsequently hit with a $100 million penalty.

Despite all the off-track drama, and the intense pressure from two of the most experienced drivers in F1 – Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso - Lewis Hamilton managed to perform to such a degree of excellence that he almost won the championship.

At the Shanghai International Circuit, Hamilton locked up his worn tires while entering the pit lane and beached his car in the gravel trap. If not for that rare mistake late in the season at the Chinese Grand Prix, the young Briton would have clinched his maiden F1 world title in rookie season.

Nevertheless, he still managed to finish ahead of his more experienced and two-time F1 world champion teammate Alonso in the standings, even as McLaren was disqualified from the constructor’s standings.