When Year 4 pupils at Brightlingsea Primary School wrote to Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton as part of a Black History Month project, they weren’t hopeful of a response.

So the children were, in the words of teacher Nadia Fares, “shocked and gobsmacked” to see the six-time world champion sit down in front of a camera and respond to their questions in person.

In the YouTube video, the Mercedes driver namechecks several of the eight and nine-year-olds, who quizzed him about topics including what it was like to be the only black F1 driver, and the problems and discrimination he had faced on his way to the top.

The video has been watched over 23,000 times. “It’s really put Brightlingsea on the map,” said Miss Fares.