AFTER winning a difficult race to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of seven Formula One championships yesterday, the hardest thing for Lewis Hamilton was containing his emotions.

His voice could be heard breaking as he thanked his team over the radio moments after crossing the line at the Turkish Grand Prix, while underneath the helmet the tears were starting to build up.

“All these emotions were running through me and I was trying to stop it,” Hamilton said in his post-race news conference. “I was thinking about my whole career, from when I was five when I drove in a go-kart, from when we won the British championship, driving home with my dad and singing ‘We Are The Champions’ and dreaming of being here.”