Even with the advantage of driving one of the best cars on the grid, Lewis Hamilton's debut season in 2007 set a new standard for rookies in Formula One, when he challenged and defeated double world champion Fernando Alonso in a head-to-head season-long duel. Since then, in seasons of extraordinary highs and character-building lows, Hamilton has secured his first drivers' world championship and felt the pain of an woefully underperforming car for the first time.

Many had questioned McLaren's decision to pick Hamilton as Alonso's team-mate for 2007, fresh from winning the GP2 series at his first attempt, people fearing the task of fighting Alonso was too severe for a drivers' first year in the sport. All was soon forgotten when Hamilton finished third in his debut race, an unprecedented act for a rookie. Things got even better for Hamilton in his second race when he took second place behind Alonso, albeit after getting trounced by the Spaniard, followed by three more podium finishes Bahrain, Spain and Monaco.

After venting his frustration at being beaten by Alonso at Monaco, Hamilton immediately fought back to take a super-impressive maiden pole position and victory in Canada, dominating the entire race despite a total of four safety car periods, as Alonso slumped to seventh, giving the Briton a comfortable eight-point championship lead. Just seven days later Hamilton was back on top of the podium after another faultless drive in the United States, but had to settle for third at the French and British Grands Prix, as Kimi Räikkönen's unstoppable fightback began.

After nine successive podium finishes, Hamilton finished outside the points for the first time at the European Grand Prix, spinning out in the monsoon conditions early on before recovering to ninth. He bounced back in style at Budapest, claiming his third Grand Prix win, again from pole, but only after original pole-sitter Alonso had penalised by the stewards. Further points finishes and a stunning victory in the wet at Fuji gave him a 12-point lead over Alonso and 17 points over Räikkönen with just two rounds remaining.

Everything looked to be on-track in China to claim an unprecedented world championship in his debut season, when he secured pole position on Saturday, but rain on Sunday afternoon spelled disaster for the Briton and on worn tyres, slid into a gravel trap whilst entering the pitlane, ending his race. Nevertheless, his title advantage still stood at 4 and 7 points over Alonso and Räikkönen when arriving in Brazil for the season finale, and starting second on the grid just had to keep his rivals within sight to become champion. But another rookie error in the first few corners of the race saw him drop down to eighth, before a gearbox glitch dropped him to 18th soon after. With Räikkönen romping to a dominant victory alongside Felipe Massa at the front, Hamilton lost out by a single point, after an almost faultless season of racing.

After such a masterful display of consistency, maturity and speed in his debut F1 season, few could have predicted his fall from grace the following year. However, despite numerous errors and copping a litany of penalties from race stewards, Hamilton snatched his maiden world championship in the dying seconds of the season in Brazil. After beginning the year with a comfortable win in Australia, his first penalty of the year and a botched pitstop saw him limp to fifth place in the Malaysian Grand Prix. In Bahrain he rear-ended former team-mate Alonso early in the race, demoting him to 13th by the end, before going on a spree of three consecutive podium finishes, including a lucky victory at Monte-Carlo.

Leading the championship once again, Hamilton should have capitalised on a stupendous pole position in Canada, only to rear-end title rival Kimi Räikkönen in the pitlane, earning himself a ten-place grid penalty for the following French Grand Prix. Another penalty early in the race at Magny-Cours meant he finished only tenth, but recovered strongly with two impressive victories in Britain and Germany. A puncture mid-way through the Hungarian Grand Prix put paid to his chances of a win there, before taking second place in Valencia. Victory at the Belgian Grand Prix was stripped by the stewards for an illegal overtaking manoeuvre, before securing more points in Italy and Singapore, the latter through his ninth podium finish of the season.

A drive-through penalty and first-lap collision with Felipe Massa at the Japanese Grand Prix cost Hamilton another points finish, but once again in the face of adversity came back from the disappointment to win just a week later in China. A nail-biting end to the season saw Hamilton secure the title at the final corner of the final race in Brazil, overtaking Toyota's Timo Glock to take fifth place and the title by a single point.

The radical regulations overhaul for 2009 resulted in a major shift of F1's pecking order and McLaren began the year with the worst car of the field, with the beginning of pre-season testing showing just how tough a challenge the team had to return to competitiveness. A lucky break in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix saw Hamilton almost take a surprise podium, before being disqualified for lying to the stewards. With developments coming thick and fast, Hamilton scored points in the following three races, before beginning a five-race points drought, as McLaren focused on a major upgrade for the German Grand Prix.

He got his first chance to shine at the following Hungarian Grand Prix and grasped the opportunity with both hands to record a dominant win. Second place was all he could manage in Europe despite leading more than half the race from pole position, before being punted out of the Belgian Grand Prix on the first lap. A comfortable third place in Italy was thrown away thanks to a needless last-lap error, but as he did on countless other occasions, bounced back with a victory, winning in Singapore. He then took two consecutive third places in Japan and Brazil, before being robbed of a podium finish at the season finale in Abu Dhabi thanks to a brake problem, his first ever mechanical retirement in F1.

Decade highs:
Unprecedented run of nine podium finishes from debut race in 2007
Back-to-back maiden wins in Canada and United States in 2007
Dominant win in China 2008 setting up his title triumph a race later
Return to winning ways in Hungary 2009

Decade lows:
Losing title in 2007 at final race
Losing win in Belgium 2008 to a post-race penalty
Lying to race stewards in Australia 2009, costing him fourth place

2010s?
With Hamilton likely to stay with McLaren for the foreseeable future, and the team set to return to championship-challenging ways in 2010, there's no doubt but that Hamilton will win many more world championships in the coming years.