F1: Lewis Hamilton's third world title in numbers

By claiming victory in the US Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton also clinched his third world championship more than a month before the current season draws to a close in Abu Dhabi.

The timing of the achievement differs from his previous triumphs in 2008 and 2014, which were both sealed in the last races of the season as the drivers championship went to the wire.

Is Lewis Hamilton one of the all-time greats?

Not this time. Since the beginning of the hybrid era, Hamilton’s stats have been getting better and better with every race win, podium and pole position. After nine years in Formula One, here’s how his career looks in numerical form...

Lewis is now joint-fifth on the list of world champions, along with Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Niki Lauda, Nelson Piquet and his childhood hero Ayrton Senna.

Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel aren’t out of reach with four titles apiece, while Juan Manuel Fangio (five) and Michael Schumacher (seven) top the list.

Victory in Austin handed Lewis his tenth chequered flag of the season, with Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel the only other winners in 2015. Each has managed a comparatively meagre three wins this season.

Lewis now has 43 F1 wins, with this latest top-spot taking him one ahead of Seb in the all-time standings.

Fastest in-race laps are normally set at the end of grands prix as fuel is burned off and rubber is laid down on the track surface, but anyone comfortably leading in the final seconds won’t necessarily be pushing to top the time sheets.

This might explain why Hamilton has so many fewer fastest laps to his name than race wins, having managed only 26 since his first one in Malaysia in 2007.

Incidentally, Kimi Raikkonen is an astonishing second behind Michael Schumacher on this particular list, having scored 42 fastest laps despite winning less than half the number of races.

The 30-year-old Brit endured a torrid mid-season last year, which forced him to claw back a large championship lead from Nico Rosberg not once but twice during the season.

A DNF in the first race in Melbourne immediately left Hamilton 25 points adrift of his teammate, and he was further behind after the controversial grand prix in Spa during which he collected a puncture on the second lap.

But improved consistency and fewer non-finishes have made Hamilton’s tally more formidable this year, with the Merc driver 36 points better off after sixteen races than at the same stage last season.

He could yet beat Sebastian Vettel’s record haul of 397 points by the end of the year...

Despite missing out on pole in Austin, Lewis has still racked up 49 poles in his career. This means he has been in prime position on the grid in just over 30% of the races he has entered.

Michael Schumacher leads the way on 68, with Ayrton Senna just shy on 65, despite the Brazilian starting barely half the races of the German legend. If Lewis spends another season at the front...

Lewis has finished on the podium in 51 per cent of his races, meaning he has tasted champagne after every other grand prix he has entered since his debut in 2007. That ratio is comparable with that of F1's most successful driver, Michael Schumacher.

A wise man once said: “What do points win? Prizes!” And that couldn’t be truer as far as Hamilton is concerned.

The triple world champion has scored points 79 per cent of the time he has entered a grand prix, although historically that number is aided by the extension of the ‘points zone’ to the top ten back in 2010. That’s a luxury the likes of Prost and Senna never had.

Again, another figure inflated by the fact that you can earn 25 points for a race win today, when in 1984 victory would only bring you a paltry nine...

In the time Hamilton has been racing, though, his teammates have come second best having picked up just 1552 points in exactly the same cars. Not bad considering he’s raced alongside two world champions...

Last but not least. Lewis Hamilton has spent a mind-boggling 2400 laps leading races since 2007. This equates to more than 12,000km in total over the course of his career, which is further than the distance between the last two grand prix venues in Austin and Sochi.

And at 30 years old, there’s plenty of time for more. Much, much more…