Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Hamilton tops rich list as Button drops to third

2014 world champion Lewis Hamilton remains the richest sportsman in Britain, but Jenson Button has dropped to third in the list.

Hamilton was top of last year's list - compiled by the Sunday Times - with a fortune of £68million. That amount has increased by £20m, which is the largest of any of the top ten as the 30-year-old double world champion retains top spot in 2015 with a wealth of £88m.

Button has been overtaken by England footballer Wayne Rooney in second place, with Rooney boasting a fortune of £72m, putting him £1m ahead of McLaren's 2009 world champion.

Hamilton and Button are the only two figures from Formula One represented in a top ten which is largely made up of footballers and golfers as well as tennis star Andy Murray and basketball player Luol Deng.

The Sunday Times Sport Rich List top ten:

Pos	Sportsman	Sport	2015	2014
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Formula One	£88m	(£68m)
2.	Wayne Rooney	Football	£72m	(£60m)
3.	Jenson Button	Formula One	£71m	(£63m)
4.	Andy Murray	Tennis	£48m	(£40m)
5.	Rio Ferdinand	Football	£44m	(£44m)
6.	Steven Gerrard	Football	£42m	(£37m)
7.	Luol Deng	Basketball	£40m	(£36m)
7.	Jose Mourinho	Football	£40m	(new)
9.	Frank Lampard	Football	£39m	(£37m)
10.	Sir Nick Faldo	Golf	£38m	(new)
10.	Ryan Giggs	Football	£38m	(£36m)
10.	Rory McIlroy	Golf	£38m	(£28m)
10.	Arsene Wenger	Football	£38m	(new)

Click here for a look at the brake-by-wire system which caused Mercedes problems in Bahrain

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.