Hamilton celebrates landmark 50th GP win

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Lewis Hamilton has secured a place in the Formula One history books by clinching his 50th Grand Prix this weekend, a feat only previously achieved by Alain Prost and Michael Schumacher.

"I completely forgot that it would be the 50th," Hamilton admitted after emerging victorious in the 2016 United States Grand Prix. "Can't believe there's not more than three of us.

"It has been a long timing coming for sure, and that it feels even more special. It's been a long hard slog to get back up here and it feels great.

"I've been here for ten years had a lot of ups and downs and had a lot of incredibly gifted people who have helped me get here today and my family as well without whom I wouldn't be here today. So it's great, kind of very surreal for sure."

Hamilton said that he'd been feeling relaxed and confident all weekend in Austin, even when it came down to the matter of getting a clean start which has been one of his problem areas in 2016.

"I was almost 100 per cent clear on my start, I knew the start was going to go that way, so it was nice to kind of be in that position after so many ups and downs.

"I just felt confident that I was going to get it right this time. Worked very hard at the factory last week and found a couple of small changes which I was more comfortable with. Of course I wish I'd found them earlier in the year but yeah, did a good job today."

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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.