By Sam Cooper
March 22 2007

The 1996 champion’s comments came after Lewis’s debut race which was to the general public very impressive. Although that he finished in third, a vast majority of the praise for McLaren was directed at Lewis.

“He qualified well, and he raced brilliantly. He was at the sharp end in his first Grand Prix and was competitive with his team-mate - really, really good.”

“The weight of expectation was massive on Lewis and it seemed to me he didn't really show any sign of weakness at all. He was on it right from the word go. He qualified well, and he raced brilliantly. His start was just a classic, fantastic, pulling that move on the first corner. It was a brave but committed overtaking manoeuvre.”

"It's very, very easy for someone in their first Grand Prix to make a hash of that, but he never looked like he was fazed by what he was doing, he just did it and it came off. And when he was in front of Fernando (Alonso) you could see he was really using the entire road.

"He was right up against the wall going into the switch-back at the back of Melbourne and he was using all the road on the exit. He was pushing. He was confident. And he never looked ragged. It was good. He looked very happy on the podium. I think he knew he'd done a bloody good job. He was in the race at the sharp end in his first ever Grand Prix and competitive with his team-mate. Tremendous. Really, really good!"