F1 is set for a clash of the titans

For many years there remained serious doubt as to whether Lewis Hamilton would ever fully realise the enormous potential he demonstrated when he exploded onto the Formula 1 scene back in 2007.

All drivers will inevitably look back on scores of missed opportunities and 'what ifs', but the fact Hamilton finished the first chapter of his F1 career, at a team as mighty as McLaren, with only one world championship to his name seemed almost scandalous.

Hamilton arrived in F1 as a 22-year-old prodigy destined for great things, to not only break records but to shatter them. But his time at McLaren contained more opportunities missed than taken.

He could potentially have been champion four times over during his spell in Woking, but he couldn't quite get over the line as a rookie in 2007 (the way a 17-point lead became a one-point defeat to Kimi Raikkonen will surely remain one of the unlikeliest title turnarounds in F1 history), was always a rank outsider in '10, and was scuppered by some poor reliability during the '12 run-in.

Hamilton's road to a second title was not always smooth © XPB

But it's true that Hamilton also let himself down with a few unnecessary collisions and some mad moments during that time. His 2012 tweet of McLaren's telemetry after losing out to team-mate Jenson Button in qualifying at Spa was particularly memorable.

It seemed the unthinkable was becoming thinkable - that a driver this good was perhaps never going to attain the accolades that seemed a foregone conclusion in his rookie campaign.

But for that last-gasp pass on Timo Glock's Toyota in sight of the finish of the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, Hamilton would not have become world champion at all during his first six seasons in F1.

That really would have been unthinkable...

Hamilton's decision to 'leave home' and quit Ron Dennis's team, buying in to the "vision" of Mercedes sold to him by Ross Brawn and Niki Lauda in 2012, now looks an utter masterstroke.

During his six seasons as a McLaren driver, Hamilton won 19 per cent of the races he started, took pole position for 24 per cent of them, and finished on the podium 49 times in 110 starts.

In just 54 races for Mercedes, Hamilton has already exceeded the 21 grand prix victories he scored for McLaren, qualified on pole position for 43 per cent of the races he's started for the German manufacturer, and finished on the podium 35 times.

Hamilton now enters the rarefied company of those who have managed to win the world championship three times or more, a list occupied by just nine others in the entire history of F1.

Hamilton joins Piquet and Lauda in the three-time champion club © XPB

Drivers who have won the F1 world title three times or more

1. Michael Schumacher, 7
2. Juan Manuel Fangio, 5
3. Alain Prost, 4
4. Sebastian Vettel, 4
5. Jack Brabham, 3
6. Jackie Stewart, 3
7. Niki Lauda, 3
8. Nelson Piquet, 3
9. Ayrton Senna, 3
10. Lewis Hamilton, 3

In becoming a triple world champion, Hamilton has finally matched the tally of his great hero Ayrton Senna, and now stands as the most successful British driver in the 65-year history of F1, joining Jackie Stewart as the UK's only other three-time title winner.

Hamilton is now registering the levels of success that will make him an all-time great in the annals of F1. He has 43 grand prix wins and counting. Only Schumacher (91) and Prost (51) have more. He has 49 career pole positions; only Schumacher (68) and Senna (65) have more. He has 84 podium appearances, and only Schumacher (155), Prost (106) and Fernando Alonso (97) have more.

If Mercedes maintains its current advantage at the front of the field, Hamilton has a realistic shot at eclipsing the last named in each of those categories by the end of next season, and adding a fourth title to his personal record.

His time is now, it seems. After the rocky road travelled to title number two in 2014, Hamilton's defence of that crown has been relatively straightforward by comparison.

This is unfortunate for team-mate Nico Rosberg, who ran him very close last year and has tried his level best to come back stronger this season, only to suffer a far more comprehensive and convincing defeat.

Hamilton has looked far more relaxed this year, as though finally winning that second title lifted a heavy weight from his shoulders.

He is happily managing his own affairs, including successfully negotiating a contract extension with Mercedes that will keep him at the team until the end of 2018, and he is revelling in his hectic celebrity lifestyle.

Hamilton's pitboard has mostly looked like this in 2015 © XPB

On track he has raised his game in qualifying after underperforming (by his own admission) in 2014, and Rosberg has been unable to respond.

The result has been devastating: 11 poles from 16 races, 10 wins, and Hamilton crowned champion with three races to spare.

Hamilton has dominated this season in the way Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel used to mop the floor with his rivals during his glory days at Red Bull.

Hamilton always seemed slightly miffed that Vettel, two years his junior, romped to four world titles in a row while he toiled through McLaren's peaks and troughs.

Now Hamilton has a car consistently worthy of his abilities, he is just one world championship away from matching Vettel's tally. The German has just one fewer grand prix victory to his name, three fewer pole positions, and six fewer podium finishes than Hamilton.

There is a counter argument that both Hamilton and Vettel have been fortunate to have faced relatively little threat from rivals thanks to the superiority of their machinery. But it should be noted that Ferrari won the constructors' title in 2008, the year of Hamilton's first world title, while Vettel took the '12 crown - his third - in a year when eight different drivers won races.

These two have clearly emerged as the two most successful F1 drivers of recent seasons, and have now established themselves as the two best drivers within the two strongest teams on the current grid.

With Vettel and Ferrari re-energised together, and likely to be Mercedes' only realistic challenger in the near future, the battle between these two great champions could become the defining rivalry of the current era of F1, a titanic struggle between two great champions to dominate the record books in years to come.