Yesterday was a quiet day for Lewis and Alonzo as McLaren pulled them out of their respective scheduled press conferences as the battle between the team and Ferrari heats up. 

Ron Dennis, eager to shield his drivers from the affair, opted to withdraw Hamilton and Alonso from press duties at the circuit. Hamilton’s only media function of the day was a Karting event in Budapest held by Vodaphone.

Hamilton had been scheduled to conduct a number of group interviews at the McLaren ‘Brand Centre’ - the team’s recently-acquired £10million paddock home, and Alonso was due to appear in the official FIA press conference, but following a request from McLaren he was allowed to pull out without financial penalty.

Back in England his local supermarket have decided to honor Lewis by making his life a little easier away from the track.

The ASDA Supermarket in Stevenage near his home town of Tewis have allocated Lewis a parking spot marked with a plaque initialled L.H. right outside their front door – never will Hamilton have to fight for a space while shopping there again.

Lewis Hamilton certainly wowed the crowds at Silverstone last weekend after gaining pole position with a lap time of 1:19.997 on his final attempt, then maintaining his current record by finishing again on the podium.

Now with a 14 point cushion at the top of the championship, big business has it’s eye on Hamilton as the next big thing in the league of global brand giants.

Hamilton’s performances have been so outstanding from his carting days, Bernie Eccleston has said that he would have found Lewis Hamilton a seat on the F1 grid this year had McLaren not signed him.

Now Hamilton has been made the face of Vodafone as its “Global brand ambassador” his earnings on and off track could be set to reach over £50Million a year second only to Tiger Woods as the highest paid sportsman in the world.

All of this success comes at a time when his team could be excluded from the rest of this year’s series after the controversial document leak that found a 780-page technical dossier belonging to Ferrari in Mclarens hands.

Chief designer Mike Coughlan was suspended from duty prior the British GP after he was suspected of possessing the document and Mclaren deny any further knowledge of the incident.  However, on July 26th there will be a meeting of the World Motor Sport Council to decide the outcome of the incident, if found guilty the potential range of sanctions towards Mclaren ranges from reprimands and fines to the suppression of results and exclusion from this year’s series).

Hamilton however can only keep doing what he does best, and has no real concern over the hearing. He has been spotted in Berlin recently taking a lap around the Mercedes Benz fashion week with German model, singer and actress Eva Padberg before taking on the Nürburgring this weekend.

Spotted with fellow F1 Driver David Coulthard and his fiancee at the Hugo Boss runway event, Hamilton has been relaxed and seen to enjoy mingling with the Hollywood A List.
“I’m looking forward to going back to the Nurburgring,” he says. “I had a great weekend there last season - the first time I’d scored a double in GP2 - and I enjoy the track.”

We’ve had requests from people asking where they can see the Vodafone Lewis Hamilton TV advert. Here it is…