I M experiencing a distinct air of déjà vu right now. A year ago, we all had high hopes that Stevenage s favourite son was about to become the youngest F1 world champion in his first season. He had had a whopping 17-point lead with two more races to go an

I'M experiencing a distinct air of déjà vu right now. A year ago, we all had high hopes that Stevenage's favourite son was about to become the youngest F1 world champion in his first season.

He had had a whopping 17-point lead with two more races to go and we thought nothing could stop him from taking his place in history.

There was a hiccup but with just one race to go Lewis Hamilton was the odds-on favourite to clinch the title.

Surely the fairy tale had to have a happy ending? But it can be a cruel world and fate had it in for Lewis, who saw the chance of everlasting glory slip from his grasp.

Almost 12 months on and it is another agonising time for all of us who, most would admit, did not care too much about motor racing until the dashing young man from Comet country burst onto the scene.

Lewis must have had an oh-not-again feeling when he got clipped by arch rival Massa in the Japanese Grand Prix and in an instant went from contention to no hope in last place.

But the boy did good the next time in China on Sunday when he drove an impeccable if somewhat boring race to take the chequered flag.

Now we have to wait just a little longer for the final race of the season in Brazil to find out if he will at last realise his dream. My feeling is that he will achieve it if only to show that he is just as successful as the Team GB Olympic squad and the England football team when it comes to winning.

I would like to see him take the title simply because it will justify him being given the already granted honour from Stevenage Borough Council of having a road named after him when the town centre is redeveloped.

He will deserve it, but I was always a little chary about the road being given his name in the expectation that he would become world champion.

What I cannot understand is the borough council's apparent indifference to someone else from Stevenage who was a world record holder around two dozen times and, I believe, still posthumously holds some of them.

When the idea of naming a road after Lewis was first mooted a year ago, it was pointed out that George Brown was famous for establishing world motor-cycle speed records on Vincent bikes which were made in Stevenage. He had a motorcycle shop in High Street.

For many years, he was the bee's knees when it came to setting records in what was inherently a much more dangerous sport than motor racing. He broke many bones and his face bore the scars of rides which went wrong.

George was a true champion and, as it stood, he deserved even more than Lewis to be remembered on a street name plate.

When Lewis finishes in Brazil with enough points to become champion - and I have a feeling he will - he will to my mind be a worthy recipient of the honour to be bestowed on him back in his hometown but I will feel easier still if some people in Daneshill House decide at last to remember George as well.