Flashback: Lewis Hamilton's historic first Formula 1 victory at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix

This was only his sixth Grand Prix. Pole position. Victory. Composure through chaos. Four safety cars. Alonso rattled. Kubica in a terrifying crash. Massa and Fisichella disqualified. Hamilton simply drove through the madness like he had been born for it.

Hamilton said afterwards: “I'm having a fantastic day, this is historic... I've been ready for this for quite some time, ready for the win, it was just a matter of where and when... The last few laps were just a case of counting them down and it really was just about enjoying it. It was a fairly simple race.”

Simple. In only his sixth Formula 1 race. That was the terrifying part for everyone else.

Ron Dennis knew exactly what he had unleashed: “It was a text book race from him. He didn't put a foot wrong. He drove the car faultlessly. He didn't have anything gifted to him. He won the race from start to finish. And that is a special win.”

The story had started years earlier, when a 10 year old Hamilton walked up to Dennis at the Autosport Awards and told him: “Hi, I’m Lewis Hamilton and I won the British championship and one day I wanna be racing your cars.”

That was not arrogance. That was destiny speaking early. Reflecting on that encounter with young Hamilton at the time, Dennis wrote in his autograph book: “Call me in nine years.”

He did not wait that long. By 1998, Hamilton was in McLaren’s system. The money, structure, pressure and expectation were all there. So was the deal. Work hard. Win. Do not waste the chance. He did not, Formula Renault. F3. GP2.

Then McLaren in 2007, alongside Alonso, the double World Champion, the man who had ended Michael Schumacher’s reign. Most rookies would have been eaten alive. Hamilton attacked.

At the 2007 McLaren launch, Hamilton said: “Being a teammate with Fernando Alonso, for some people, it may be daunting... although I feel quite relaxed about it, and he seems a very, very nice guy. I'm sure that we're gonna get on very well. I'm sure 2007 is gonna be a year that we're all going to remember.”

Boy he was right! Just not in the polite corporate way McLaren hoped. From Melbourne, Hamilton was no passenger. He overtook Alonso at the first corner of his first race. Then came podium after podium. By Canada, he had five from five. The rookie was not learning slowly. He was already applying pressure.

Then Montreal blew the doors off the whole fiction. Hamilton took pole with 1:15.707. McLaren one and two. Alonso beside him. The World Champion expected to impose himself.

Instead, Hamilton nailed the start. Alonso ran wide at Turn 1. The psychological damage was immediate. From there, the rookie controlled the race. Safety cars kept dragging the pack back to him. Each time, he pulled away again. That is what champions do. That is what rattles teammates most.

That Sunday, 10 June 2007, in Montreal did not create the McLaren civil war. It exposed it. Alonso had arrived as the king. Hamilton refused to behave like a servant. McLaren talked about equality. Alonso felt the ground moving under him. Dennis had his golden project winning races earlier than even the optimists expected.

The result was poison. Hungary followed. Thereafter Spygate swallowed the team. Alonso’s relationship with Dennis collapsed. Hamilton and Alonso ended the season level on points, one behind Kimi Räikkönen, while McLaren imploded around them.

But Canada was the first great warning shot. And the fact, Hamilton’s win made history. He became the first Black driver to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix. He led the championship by eight points at 22. He proved McLaren had not gambled by promoting him from GP2. They had simply opened the cage.

Looking back now, with 105 Grand Prix wins behind him, Montreal 2007 still matters. Not because it was flawless. Because it was inevitable. Formula 1 thought it was watching a rookie win his first race.

It was actually watching the future arrive early. And that future had Hamilton winning another 104 GPs, and claim seven Formula 1 world titles, the first one of which he won in 2008 as a thank you to McLaren, and Dennis having belief in Lewis as a kid.