Lewis Hamilton For The Win...Maybe?

British F1 sensation Lewis Hamilton--he's 23, he's multiracial, he drives for McLaren--once again has the prize within his sights. OK, it's not quite the same setup, nearing the end of the F1 season, as last year. In his debut year, Hamilton had a sizable points lead going into the home stretch, then lost it. This year, after a debacle in Japan this past weekend, he's holding a narrow, 5-point lead over Filipe Massa (84-79). Edward Gorman, in the Times, has a solid rundown of the whole situation. The comments on his story are also cutting in favor of Hamilton, who has attracted plenty of controversy in his brief, but wildly successful, time racing in F1. In fact, on the eve of the Japanese Grand Prix, Gorman offered this fairly prescient analysis of what might go down:

Like Ayrton Senna, his hero, Hamilton is fast becoming the driver everyone wants to bring down, which in its way is among the biggest compliments the sport can offer. Few get to the top in Formula One without bruising the egos of others on the way and it seems that Hamilton is no exception. A problem for him, though, is that his attitude in the cockpit is attracting critical attention not only from his fellow drivers, but the FIA stewards who have picked him out on several occasions this season, not least at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa last month where he was demoted from first to third place for what amounted to overly aggressive tactics.

There's a great narrative building here for the final two races of the season. Hamilton, the brightest star that F1 has produced in some time, and a national hero in Britain, is facing multiple demons simultaneously. Can he redeem himself from last year's failure, when his points lead was even wider than this year? Can he overcome the impression that he's not an aggressively competitive driver, but a reckless one? And finally, can he climb to the top of the soap opera of interconnected rivalries that F1 has become?

The next few weeks might be the best show in sports, at this juncture. I know I'll be glued to the Speed Channel.

[Image: Official F1 website]