Lewis Hamilton takes up the Light Speed challenge at Kyalami

It would be easy to dismiss it as a marketing gimmick – challenge Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton to lap Kyalami circuit faster than it takes to transport a large amount of data along Vodacom’s new high-speed broadband business network. I can hear the yawns already… But fear not, the fun police were restrained long enough to enable Lewis to jump into a Mercedes C63 AMG.

Fresh from a trademark blast through the field to finish second in Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton arrived in South Africa to take on this head-to-head battle around Johannesburg’s famous Kyalami grand prix circuit, and it was with a mischievous glint in his eye that Lewis collected the keys to a C63 AMG Saloon – the same car that featured in his incident with the Australian traffic police in Melbourne last month.

The challenge was simple enough: could the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes driver race around the track and match the speeds of Vodacom Business’ Metro Ethernet Fibre network (Metro E) – a brand-new, super-fast, high-capacity broadband service capable of transporting large amounts of data at extreme speeds.

Lewis was equipped with a Mercedes-Benz AMG C63 (borrowed from a generous Vodacom employee). Metro E was tasked with transporting 5.4GB of data (the equivalent of about five full-length movies) from the suburb of Midrand to the more northerly area of Sandton – about 15km. The data was compiled from images and personal messages from users who uploaded images and videos as part of a competition on, www.vodacombusinesslightspeed.co.za.

“I can never resist a challenge,” said Lewis. “I’m a racer at heart, and that applies to everything in my life. So taking part in the race at Kyalami was a fantastic way to demonstrate the speed of the Vodacom network.

“I knew it was going to be tough to beat the Vodacom Business Metro E before I arrived in South Africa as we had calculated the lap time required. I have never driven at Kyalami before but it is a great circuit, full of undulations and tough, technical corners. I really enjoyed getting to know the track and after a few attempts I was getting close, with a best flying lap of 120 seconds. Like Metro E, Formula 1 is all about constantly improving technology and performance so perhaps in my Formula 1 race car there would have been a different result. I had a fantastic day and thank you to Vodacom Business for inviting me to Kyalami circuit.”

Lewis was given 3 attempts to set his fastest lap time and you can watch a video of each attempt on SkiddPlayer (just click on the image below to view Lewis’ first attempt)