Hamilton fifth in Sports Personality of the Year

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Lewis Hamilton has finished fifth in a public vote for the 2015 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

The triple world champion - who won the award in 2014 - was not present at the live event in Belfast having been nominated once again following back-to-back championships. Despite winning the F1 title in a more dominant fashion this season, Hamilton failed to even make the top three of the British public's vote.

Tennis player Andy Murray was the winner for the second time in three years, ahead of rugby league's Kevin Sinfield and athlete Jessica Ennis-Hill. Hamilton was also beaten by controversial boxing heavyweight champion of the world Tyson Fury.

Hamilton received 48,379 votes on Sunday evening compared to Murray's 361,446, with the latter having recently led Great Britain to Davis Cup victory for the first time in 79 years. Sinfield received over a quarter of a million votes, while Hamilton was more than 30,000 votes adrift of Ennis-Hill.

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