The first man of Afro-Caribbean descent to race a Formula One car claimed his maiden victory with a superb, assured drive through the carnage of a dramatic, wild and incident-filled Canadian Grand Prix.

Hamilton, 22, in his McLaren Mercedes-Benz, took full advantage of the first pole position of his career to grab his first win in only his sixth race at the highest level in typically composed and perfectly-focussed fashion.

No wonder sports writers all over the world are predicting a phenomenal career for the youngster from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, England -- they have also dubbed him as F1's answer to golf's black superstar Tiger Woods.

Hamilton's superb win lifted him eight points clear of reigning champion Fernando Alonso and 15 ahead of Brazilian Felipe Massa of Ferrari in the championship standings. In the constructors' championship, McLaren lead now with 88 points to Ferrari's 60.

"He deserved it and I am proud and very happy for him, for Lewis," said the McLaren team chief Ron Dennis afterwards, brushing aside all controversy following last month's Monaco Grand Prix where Hamilton was ordered to finish second behind teammate Alonso.

"He won it fair and square and drove superbly. We came to win, but we like to see both cars do well and today it was not Fernando's day. Once there had been the first safety car intervention, it was not going to be possible for him."

But the 70-laps race was overshadowed by a series of massive accidents and unexpected incidents as the safety car was deployed four times.

Poland's Robert Kubica survived a massive high-speed accident with just a broken leg in his BMW Sauber car and two top drivers were disqualified and two others penalised for infringements.

The two men black-flagged and disqualified were Ferrari's world title challenger Massa and Renault's Italian Giancarlo Fisichella, both for exiting the pit-lane under red flags.

The two penalised for pitting were defending double drivers world champion Spaniard Alonso and German-born Nico Rosberg of Williams, both for pitting when the pit-lane was closed during the first safety car period.

All of this drama left experts praising the integrity of the Formula One cars, following Kubica's 300 kph crash, and predicting that Hamilton is a future Formula One champion in the making.

Hamilton has reeled off a series of astonishing results in his first six races -- third in Australia followed by four seconds in Malaysia, Bahrain, Spain and Monaco and then this stunning victory.

His win here on Sunday was overwhelming evidence of his class in a race that saw German Nick Heidfeld finish second for Sauber BMW ahead of Austrian Alex Wurz in a Williams-Toyota. Finland's Heikki Kovalainen was fourth for Renault, compatriot Kimi Raikkonen fifth for Ferrari and Japan's Takuma Sato sixth for Super Aguri.

This left Alonso, after a desperate race riddled with problems and off-track excursions, to finish seventh ahead of under-pressure German Ralf Schumacher in a Toyota.

Kubica was reported to be stable and conscious, despite breaking his leg in a horrifying accident that saw his car smash into a wall, barrel-roll across the circuit and then rebound off a steel barrier.

He was lifted out of the car and taken to the circuit medical centre from where he was later air-lifted to hospital.