Hamilton Praises Button: "He'll Be a Great Champion!"

Lewis Hamilton congratulated his countryman Jenson Button for becoming world champion this year, admitting that the 29-year old Brit will become a great ambassador for the sport in the year to come. Button's 5th place finish in Brazil notched up his maiden F1 crown in career and kept the F1 title in the UK in back-to-back years for the first time in the last 4 decades.

Having already warned his fellow colleague and good friend Button that he only lent the F1 title to him until next year, Hamilton admitted that the Brawn GP driver is one of the worthiest F1 champions in years. After all, this was the first time since Fernando Alonso's title in 2005 that a driver was crowned world champion before the last race of the season.

“He knows that I've been supporting him all year, and I've seen him and given him my congratulations. I've been saying for months that he'd be a worthy world champion and I think he'll be a great ambassador for our sport (...) He will make a great champion,” wrote Hamilton on his personal website.

“It's great that the title will stay in Great Britain for another year, and I'd like to think that we'll both be up there next year fighting alongside each other to ensure that we keep bringing it back home to home soil,” added the McLaren driver.

As always, a past champion won't only congratulate the one who managed to “steal” his title away, but also give him a piece of advice for the future. Despite being 5 years older and more experienced than Ham, Button is, in fact, one year later to his compatriot to experiencing the beauty of being world champion.

“My only advice for Jenson would be to let it slowly sink in, and to enjoy it. Being champion will pull you in directions that you hadn't previously thought about, and it's all about resetting your balance, finding calmness and refocusing for the new challenges ahead,” added Ham.