LEWIS HAMILTON is the record-breaking young British hero of Formula One. His phenomenal debut season was nothing short of a revelation, coming through against all the odds to dominate and revolutionise the world of motor racing.

It was an outcome no one could have predicted: thrown in at the deep end 'on a mighty whim' by McLaren team owner Ron Dennis, not only did Lewis have to combat his own nerves and fears, he had to overcome a dissenter within his own camp.

With behind-the-scenes insight into the intense rivalry between Hamilton and his teammate Fernando Alonso which threatened to derail the young Briton's dream, and the low-down on the 'spy-gate' scandal, this biography describes how Lewis handled the intensity of the media scrum around his relationship with Nicole Scherzinger and kept his dignity to emerge triumphant as he racked up sensational wins around the world. Now he has even joined iconic speedsters Damon Hill and Bradley Wiggins as a BBC Sports Personality of the Year winner.

From his momentous clinching of the 2014 World Championship in Abu Dhabi to the bitter rivalry with former friend Nico Rosberg – which culminated in the German engineering a deliberate high-speed crash – bestselling sports author Frank Worrall traces the slipstream of Hamilton's incredible career as the fastest driver on the planet.

This is the ultimate story of the driver who Sir Jackie Stewart says 'has rewritten the rookie rule book'. But he is a rookie no more. Lewis Hamilton has accelerated into pole position to be called Britain's greatest ever race driver.