Now Lewis, can you win over the USA?

David Letterman's eponymous Late Show was given the chance to talk to Britain's Formula One phenomenon on CBS but they turned it down.

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Their reasoning was that Dario Franchitti, the Indy500 winner from Scotland, was on recently and you can have too much of a good thing.

Snubbed once in the States, Hamilton is determined to triumph in Sunday's American Grand Prix at Indianapolis — self-styled, with typical American understatement, as the Motor Racing Capital of the World'.

The McLaren driver, who claimed a sensational victory in Canada last weekend, said: It still hasn't really sunk in that I have won my first race. It was an amazing time for me and it is fantastic that we are racing again so soon.

"Indianapolis Motor Speedway is another tough circuit on the cars. I hope we are as competitive but until we get out on the circuit on Friday we can't really predict how it is going to go.

"I am really excited to be racing at Indy. It is such a legendary venue. You can't escape the history here and I am looking forward to experiencing the atmosphere for the first time.

"The track has the unique characteristic of the banking but from what I hear it doesn't have a massive impact on the cars. But it will be pretty cool!"

Hamilton will take his first look at the famous old track today, calculating how he must drive it to increase his eight-point lead in the drivers' rankings over his world champion team-mate Fernando Alonso.

The 22-year-old yesterday steered clear of McLaren's civil war which continues to simmer after Alonso accused the Woking-based team of favouring Hamilton.

Instead, he was typically grounded in his assessment of his remarkable season, saying: To be going into race seven of the championship in the position I'm in is amazing. However, it is still early days.

"I am very much still learning. There are 11 more races this season, including Indy, and that's a long way to go, with a lot of work ahead. I have enjoyed it so far but I'm aware racing isn't predictable and anything could happen at the next race."

Alonso, 25, was back on-message yesterday, at least for public consumption.

He said: "Canada was a tough and frustrating race for me but I left Montreal with some points and am in a strong second position in the championship.

"The car is definitely capable of winning races and I am looking forward to getting back out on the track."

Hamilton is favourite to win on Sunday but cracking America is another matter. Even Michael Schumacher took his holidays here because he went unrecognised.

Speak to a local in an Indianapolis bar and they will regale you with tales of Peyton Manning, the great Colts quarterback, but when Formula One crops up the conversation slows.

And those who are better informed remember the 2002 race when Schumacher tried to stage a dead-heat with his fellow Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello.

Then, most infamously, there was the 2005 farce with just six cars competing due to safety fears.

Motor Speedway bosses are deliberating whether to continue hosting races when the current one-year deal expires this weekend.

F1 ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone is desperately keen that the sport establish itself in America's super-wealthy marketplace and the Hamilton factor' will be a major bargaining tool when he sits down for the latest round of talks this week.

However, just how hard it will be for even such a marketable foreign' star as Hamilton to penetrate the American consciousness was highlighted in the Indianapolis Star newspaper.

They stopped a reader on the street and posed the tricky question: who's the British Prime Minister? His reply was, of course, Albert Einstein.

Perhaps it's no surprise you won't see Hamilton and Letterman live on air any time soon.