After taking his maiden championship crown in a British car marked with a number 22, powered by a Mercedes engine, by finishing fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2008, denying a Brazilian driver his maiden title in the process, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton passed the mantle to fellow Brit Jenson Button, who did the exact same thing last Sunday afternoon.

By finishing fifth in Brazil, for a British team in a Mercedes powered car marked by a number 22, Jenson Button took the honours and cancelled out any possibility that hsi Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello would clinch his maiden crown. All coincidences aside, Lewis Hamilton has passed on his mantle to Jenson and remembers all too clearly just what it felt like to get the job done and he has now advised Jenson to enjoy every moment of this new sensational feeling....

“Becoming world champion is a strange and unreal feeling. I heard on Sunday that Jenson kept on saying, “I’m champion, I’m world champion,” and I kind of knew exactly what he meant. It’s all too much to take in at once – especially in one day. For me, I still don’t really think of myself as world champion – of course, when I first saw the number one on my car, it really meant something, and when I arrived at Melbourne for the first race, it also meant something new to me. But I still have the same determination to succeed that I’ve always had,” he said on his official website.

“My only advice for Jenson would be to let it slowly sink in, and to enjoy it. Being champion will pull you in directions that you hadn’t previously thought about, and it’s all about resetting your balance, finding calmness and refocusing for the new challenges ahead. But it’s also an incredibly uplifting feeling, a total relief and it brings something special to your life. He’ll be a great champion.”