This might be the one of the most competitive BBC Sport Personality of the Year awards with Lewis Hamilton being F1's representative in the battle to be crowned the British public's favourite sporting star of the past 12 months.
Having won the prize once before in 2015 as well as picking up three other nominations, Hamilton knows all about Sports Personality and it's great to see Formula One recognised on the biggest stage. Hamilton has kept the sport relevant to more than just die-hard fans and is, for the most part, a great representative for Formula One on the wider sporting stage. He is not loved by everyone in Britain but it is impossible to feel anything other than a deep sense of respect for what the man from Hertfordshire has achieved in the sport he loves.
It will be very interesting to see how he gets on this year, he is up against a very tough field and it is always fun to gauge the British public's love for F1 based on how racers do when they are amongst the twelve nominees. One of the field, Chris Froome has come under huge scrutiny this week for an abnormal result in one of his recent drug tests that could see him stripped of his Vuelta De Espana title and banned from cycling. It is unlikely that Froome will take home the prize now giving Lewis an ever better chance of winning his second SPOTY.
He will have to beat some big names of British sport as well as some lesser known stars. Anthony Joshua is a household name after beating Wladimir Klitschko to become a world heavyweight champion, Mo Farah won a gold and a silver medal at the World Championship in Athletics and Tennis Player Jo Konta captured the public imagination when she managed to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon.
Less well known are speed skater Elise Christie and Taekwondo fighter Bianca Walden. They compete in sports as unknown to the British public as the amazing card game baccarat which is something you have to find out more about. It is a fun, interesting and exciting game and there is more info here. If you want something with the buzz of Formula One that is a little bit less dangerous then baccarat is your game. It puts you in the driving seat in a way that few other games can. Hamilton will be hoping to get a thrill as big as getting a winning hand in baccarat when he turns up at Sport Personality on Sunday and here are two reasons why I think he deserves to win it.
He has become a great of his sport:
Many of the nominees have done special things this year but, Mo Farah aside, none have established themselves as one of the greatest ever participants in their sport. Hamilton has now won four world titles which puts him in exalted company and only two drivers have ever secured more than the British driver.
He took a number of records and made them his own. He now has the most pole positions of any driver in the history of the sport, he has the most career points scored, the highest average points per race, the highest percentage of races where he has finished in the points and is now tied with the legendary Michael Schumacher for the most amount of wins from pole. He is a driver that will go down as one of the greatest to grace his sport and he confirmed that this year. None of the other nominees have done that, especially in a sport as competitive as Formula One, thus Hamilton is a cut above the competition.
He just had his best year in an already illustrious career:
This would not be his first SPOTY title if he was to reign supreme in Liverpool having taken the prize in 2015 but this year has been even better than that one. Hamilton's 2017 season has been his best in Formula One which is saying something considering he had already won three World Championships before this season. He was so dominant this year winning over half of the races and finishing all of them.
He finished so far ahead of second placed Sebastian Vettel that he could almost have sat out two races and still beaten the German to the title even if Vettel had won both races. No other nominee (apart from the now tainted Froome) dominated like he did. They did not see off the competition in as impressive fashion as Hamilton and that is why he should get his second crown and be 2017's Sports Personality of the Year.
