Lewis Hamilton, Great Britain’s motor-racing sensation, drove to his first career win in Formula One yesterday at the end of one of the most spectacular grands prix in recent history, which included a horrifying crash for the young Polish driver, Robert Kubica.

Starting on pole for the first time, Hamilton showed all the qualities that have convinced many that he is a world champion in waiting, clinching his first victory ahead of Nick Heidfeld, of BMW Sauber, and Alex Wurz, of Williams.

On a difficult and slippy track, Hamilton drove fast and smart while all around him his rivals were coming to grief. In the battle between Ferrari and McLaren Mercedes, this was most emphatically a McLaren weekend. Although Fernando Alonso, Hamilton’s McLaren Mercedes teammate, could finish only seventh, Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari, was only two places better and Felipe Massa was disqualified.

Hamilton has now won a race in Formula One after fewer races – six – than any British driver before him bar Tony Brooks in the 1950s. By comparison, Sir Jackie Stewart won at his eighth attempt, Mike Hawthorn at his ninth and Nigel Mansell on his 72nd start.

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Lewis Hamilton won - the only mystery was why it took him so long

Simon Barnes

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Hamilton got away with Alonso alongside him on the front row. As they charged to the first corner, Hamilton closed slightly on the Spaniard who tried to go outside his British rival and ended up crossing the grass at turn one.

Thus for the second time in a race this season – Alonso did the same thing at the Spanish Grand Prix when trying to get past Massa – the pressure had told on the Spaniard, who slipped to third place behind Heidfield.

While Hamilton sped away to a ten-second lead, Alonso struggled on a slightly heavier fuel load and went wide twice more, the second time allowing Massa to steal through to take third himself.

Alonso’s race went from bad to worse as he was called in for tyres and fuel when the pitlane was closed after Adrian Sutil, the Spyker driver had crashed. The resultant drive-through penalty dropped him to fourteenth from where he began a long and incident-strewn fightback.

It was at this point that the worst of numerous crashes disrupted a wild race when Kubica destroyed his car in a heart-stopping horror show. He was lucky that it did not claim his life. The BMW Sauber driver was hammering along on one of the fastest sections of the track before the slow hairpin when he lost control at more than 180mph after clipping the back of Jarno Trulli’s Toyota.

Kubica hit the concrete wall between the two sections of track at full pelt and the impact threw the central monocoque, with Kubica inside it, across the track and into the barriers with sickening violence.

The safety car was out again for five laps as Kubica was gently eased from the cockpit and taken away in an ambulance. Amazingly, he was reported to be conscious and talking to doctors while awaiting a helicopter transfer to hospital in Montreal. BMW said last night that Kubica had not broken any bones and he was expected to be released today.

As the race resumed, so did the drama, with Trulli and Nico Rosberg spinning in concert at turn one, while Massa and Giancarlo Fisichella, of Renault, were disqualified for exiting the pitlane under a red light.

Hamilton’s victory underlines his World Championship credentials. He has gone from being a rookie, to a rookie on the podium, to a race winner. The Hamilton Express has arrived and Andy Murray is going to have to win Wimbledon to displace him as Britain’s sporting sensation of the year.

After the race, Ron Dennis, the McLaren team principal, paid this tribute to his protégé. “It’s a very long time since the National Anthem was played for a race winner,” he said. “I am very pleased for his family, I’m very pleased for Lewis because it was an impeccable drive in extremely difficult conditions.

“He avoided the debris on track and he controlled every restart. It was a well-deserved victory and a perfect weekend for him.”