Lewis Hamilton won De Monaco Grand Prix in McLaren

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton registered 2nd win of the season by winning an action packed 2008 De Monaco Grand Prix, on Sunday, 25th May, at Monte Carlo. After an early run into the barriers on a wet circuit as the rain fell, Hamilton managed to hold his nerve, becoming only the fifth Briton to take the chequered flag.

The race was full of accidents due to early rain but Hamilton , so superb in the wet, won the race in style, BMW Sauber's Kubica finished 2nd followed by Felipe Massa in his Ferrari.

Mark Webber finished fourth for Red Bull ahead of Sebastian Vettel, who finally got a break to bring his new Toro Rosso STR3 home fifth in front of Rubens Barrichello’s Honda, who finished sixth. The Williams of Kazuki Nakajima was seventh, with Kovalainen a resolute eighth.

Raikkonen was unable to slot back into a points-scoring position, finishing ninth overall. Force India had a good chance of scoring 1st points of the season as Adrian Sutil, who had driven superbly to hold fourth but accident with Raikkonen forced him out of the race.

Race Summary:

Top 3 Drivers at 2008 De Monaco Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton - McLaren

Robert Kubica - BMW

Felipe Massa - Ferrari


Standing after 6th Race in 2008


Driver's Championship

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) - 38 points

Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) - 35 points

Felipe Massa (Ferrari)- 34 points


Constructor's Championship

Ferrari - 69 points

McLaren-Mercedese - 53 points

BMW - 52 points

Lewis Hamilton signs a new five-year multi-million pound contract with McLaren

Lewis Hamilton on Friday signed a new five-year multi-million pound contract with McLaren which commits him to the team until 2012. Now he has become one of Britain's highest-paid sportsmen.

Hamilton has now made a long-term commitment to the McLaren team, who were heavily fined last year for their involvement in the F1 `spy row'. The new deal underlines the relationship between Hamilton and a team he has been associated with since an early age.

Hamilton, who turned 23 just 11 days ago, said: "It's fantastic for me the team has extended my contract until 2012.

The five-year deal is believed to be worth £10million per year, or £200,000 per week - a bumper pay packet that eclipses the country's Premier League stars.

Only David Beckham, whose five-year contract with LA Galaxy was rumoured to be £128million over its duration, can claim to earn more than Hamilton.

The 23-year-old came within a point of winning the world title, only to lose out in the final grand prix of the campaign in Brazil as circumstances conspired against him.

Hamilton, though, won four races and broke every rookie record in the Formula One history books, ensuring it would be only a matter of when, and not if, McLaren would offer a new deal.

With the contract not due to expire until 2012, should Hamilton remain with the team up until that time, it means his partnership with McLaren will stretch to 15 years.

Hamilton was initially signed up a decade ago at the age of 13 as he was supported through various karting and junior formulae en route to his breakthrough into Formula One.

Such is his affinity with McLaren, he freely concedes he "could easily drive for this team for the whole of my Formula One career".