Rookie Hamilton is likened to Tiger on wheels

Hamilton, 22, is off to the best start ever for an F1 rookie -- ever, mind you, at the highest level of automobile racing in the world, in some serious historical company: Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jimmy Clark

He could score his breakthrough victory as soon as Sunday.

F1 is abuzz with the numerology of Hamilton's progression: third in the season-opening Grand Prix of Australia, second on Sunday in Malaysia, so why not first in Bahrain this weekend?

When he wins may be a matter of when his McLaren-Mercedes team gives him the green light to go all out. So far, he has been following F1 protocol for a junior driver, which is to defer to a senior teammate -- in this case Fernando Alonso, who at 25 has won world championships the last two years.

You have to understand the subtleties of F1 to get the entire meaning of what Hamilton said to his team via radio Sunday, seconds after completing one of the most captivating second-place drives by anyone, rookie or otherwise, in memory.

"I want to win," Hamilton said. Well, of course he does. But that could be read not as a simple expression of ambition but as a request of McLaren team boss Ron Dennis.

"Doesn't matter if it's the next race," Hamilton continued in the accent of his native England. "But sometime this year, I'm going to have one."

No previous F1 rookie has deserved to win so soon in his career -- not Schumacher himself (who at age 22 made mistakes; this guy doesn't), not even the late, legendary Senna, the Mozart of drivers, who was killed in his prime in 1994.

Consider Hamilton's Malaysian drive alone:

He started fourth but quickly, artfully, slipped past both Ferraris -- better, quicker cars than his McLaren -- into second place, falling in behind teammate Alonso, who'd jumped from second into the lead.

From there, Hamilton's job was not to challenge Alonso, but to fight a defensive action, holding off the favored Ferraris so that Alonso could get away.

This Hamilton did, in electrifying ways at times.

Felipe Massa, Ferrari's rising star, tried three times to get around Hamilton. Three times Hamilton darted back ahead, making Massa look worse each time.