The lucky winner of the Lewis Hamilton Hot Lap competition thought his colleagues were playing a prank on him when he received a phone call to say he had won.

Pierre Farrugia, 51, is a self-confessed ‘petrol head’ and he is delighted that he will be sitting beside Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes sports car next Sunday.

The 2008 F1 world champion will drive Mr Farrugia on a ‘hot lap’ around the racing track, but the Arrow Pharmaceuticals employee refused to believe he had won when he first received a phone call from The Sunday Times last week.

“My colleagues are also big racing fans and we race go-karts regularly. The youngsters can’t beat me so I thought this was their way of getting back at me,” laughed Mr Farrugia. Not only that, but two of his most competitive colleagues had been bragging to him that they had won VIP passes for the Vodafone Raise Your Game event, which will also see Mr Hamilton performing doughnut manoeuvres.

“When I received the confirmation e-mail from The Sunday Times I printed it out and calmly told them they would have to raise their game,” Mr Farrugia chuckled.

The Sunday Times Lewis Hamilton Hot Lap competition in association with Vodafone ran in this newspaper over four consecutive weeks.

Entrants had to answer four questions and send all the answers together to The Sunday Times.

When Mr Farrugia found out that the competition attracted huge interest, he was even more pleased.

“This is a dream come true for me,” he said.