He may have taken a helicopter in – like a true superstar – but he took time to acknowledge the crowd and sign hundreds of autographs.

Trackside’s Keith Collantine was there to see the British hero come home.

A 50,000-strong crowd line the famous ribbon of tarmac to see F1 hero Lewis Hamilton make his first appearance on home ground since claiming his maiden Grand prix victories.

For a few minutes the rain obligingly eased from downpour to drizzle. At the McLaren pit Hamilton Mercedes V8 shrieked into life and bystanders pushed up close to get a glimpse.

You can’t get this close to an F1 car at the British Grand Prix – or any other race.

The terrible weather made a quick run up the hill out of the question for Hamilton.

Instead the consummate showman lingered over his performance. Flicking the car’s traction control to ‘off’ he spun the tyres and thrashed the car around to roars of approval from the crowd.

At the top of the hill Hamilton popped out and signed autographs for the crowd.

He said: “I remember going up to drivers for their autographs, but they never looked at me when they signed. So I said that if I ever got to Formula 1 I’d always look at the kid, or whoever it might be.”

Hamilton added he looked forward to more of the same at the British Grand Prix, the weekend after this Sunday’s French Grand Prix.

Star cars

A bumper crop of the world’s most exciting cars were on display at Goodwood. Here are a few of our favourites:

Ayrton Senna’s first F1 car – The late Brazilian hero’s Toleman-Hart TG184 took a run up the hill. Senna famously almost won the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix in the less-than-cutting-edge car, before the race was cut short.

Toyota main display – The Japanese manufacturer celebrated its motor racing heritage with a radical display that suspended five of its greatest cars in the air.

Among them were the Toyota Celica rally car with which Carlos Sainz won the 1990 and 1992 rally championships, The GT-ONE Le Mans car and their current F1 racer.

World Rally Cars – The special forest rally stage echoed to the roar of today’s top world rally cars. The Ford Focus, Mitsubishi Lancer and Subaru Impreza tore through the thick mud at dazzling speed.

Don’t miss our Goodwood Festival of Speed Slideshow tomorrow.

Were you at the Festival? Tell us what you thought of it.

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