McLaren driver and 2008 Formula One world champion, Lewis Hamilton has spoken out about last season’s degrading and humiliating ‘liegate scandal’ after he was not completely honest with the stewards at the 2009 Australian grand prix, a lie that came back to haunt him soon afterwards and one that almost saw him walking away from the pinnacle of Motorsports altogether.

After it was discovered that he lied about an overtaking manoeuvre performed under yellow flags by another driver, Lewis made a public apology and hung his head in shame. The scandal was fierce and while some media outlets reported that he was thinking of walking away from the Woking based squad, as it was someone there that convinced him to lie, the truth was very different....

"It was a feeling of, 'Shoot, maybe I shouldn't be in the sport,' rather than not in my team," he said in the Guardian. "It was not a desire to leave the team, just stopping racing. For a split second it was, 'This is too much to take, how do I recover from this?' But there was support from my family, team, fans, amazing letters and I thought, 'You know what? I made a mistake but I am being given a second chance by all these people and their support'.

"Sometimes it is hard to face the music, hard to face people when you know that as soon as you turn your back they are talking about you. For a long period of time, for months, I would walk into a room – and I am sure there are some people who walked into the room and they feel cool – but for me I just didn't feel positive, it was negative energy and I don't like that.”

"Slowly I began to realise that it was not all negative energy and I had a lot of support and respect from people. It made me stronger, a real strong experience."