Hamilton's £75m McLaren jackpot

Lewis Hamilton has become the second highest earning British sportsman in history after signing a new five-year deal at McLaren worth £75million.

The 23-year-old flew to the team's Surrey HQ at lunchtime yesterday to sign his contract, a handsome reward for the most successful rookie season in Formula One.

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'It's fantastic for me that Vodafone McLaren Mercedes have extended my contract until 2012,' he said. 'I have been connected to them since 1998 and feel I could easily drive for this team for the whole of my F1 career.'

Hamilton will earn a basic £10m this year before win bonuses and a potential championship bonanza are added on. It means that Ferrari's world champion Kimi Raikkonen (£24m) and Renault's Fernando Alonso (£12m) are the only bigger basic earners on the grid.

The Briton's cash hike is a staggering 30-fold increase on his 2007 basic pay of £340,000, although bonuses took him through the £1m mark.

Hamilton is now behind only David Beckham, reputedly on £25.6m a year at Los Angeles Galaxy, in British sport's big-money stakes.