Junior Formulae

Hamilton began his car racing career in the 2001 British Formula Renault Winter Series, finishing fifth overall. This led to a full 2002 Formula Renault UK campaign with Manor Motorsport. Hamilton finished third overall with three wins and three pole positions. He remained with Manor for another year and won the championship with ten wins and 419 points to the two wins and 377 points of this nearest rival, Alex Lloyd. Having clinched the championship, Hamilton missed the last two races of the season to make his debut in the season finale of the British Formula Three Championship. Here he was less successful: in the first race he was forced out with a puncture, and in the second he crashed out and was taken to hospital after a collision with his team-mate Tor Graves. He did show his speed at both the Macau and Korean Grands Prix. In the latter he qualified on pole position in his first visit to the Korean track and in only his fourth race outing in a F3 car.

Hamilton and Manor then made their debut in the 2004 Formula Three Euroseries. They won just one race and Hamilton was fifth in the championship. He also won the Bahrain F3 Superprix and raced one of the Macau F3 Grand Prix. Hamilton first tested for McLaren in late 2004, at Silverstone.

He moved to reigning Euroseries champions ASM for the 2005 season and dominated the championship, winning 15 of the 20 rounds. He also won the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort.

After the season, British magazine Autosport featured him in their “Top 50 Drivers of 2005” issue, ranking Hamilton 24th. After Hamilton's success in Formula Three, he was signed by ART Grand Prix for the 2006 GP2 Series season. Like ASM in F3, ART were the class of the field and reigning champions having taken the 2005 GP2 crown with Nico Rosberg. Hamilton won the GP2 championship at his first attempt.

Among his notable performances was a dominant win at the fifth round held at the Nürburgring, despite serving a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. At his home race at Silverstone, supporting the British Grand Prix, Hamilton impressed again by overtaking two rivals at Becketts, a series of high-speed (up to 150 mph in a GP2 car) bends where overtaking is rare. He demonstrated his overtaking prowess again at the race in Istanbul, when he recovered from a spin that left him 18th, to take second place in the final corners. He became GP2 champion in unusual circumstances. Giorgio Pantano won the penultimate race at Monza, and set the fastest lap on the final lap, initially taking this bonus point from Hamilton. However, it transpired that he had set this under a yellow flag, indicating to the officials that he had not slowed enough to avoid potential danger, leading to him losing the fastest lap, which therefore gave Hamilton the single point he needed to clinch the title.

His 2006 GP2 championship coincided with a vacancy at McLaren following the departure of Juan Pablo Montoya to NASCAR and Kimi Räikkönen to Ferrari.

After months of speculation on whether Hamilton, Pedro de la Rosa, Gary Paffett or former World Champion Mika Häkkinen would drive for McLaren alongside defending champion Fernando Alonso in 2007, Hamilton was confirmed as the team's second driver. This surprised many F1 insiders, who felt the more experienced Paffett and de la Rosa were more qualified for a race seat. He was told of McLaren’s decision on September 30, but the news was not made public until November 24, for fear that it would be overshadowed by Michael Schumacher’s retirement announcement.

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