Personalised Pagani a very tidy earner for seven-time world champ.

ELECTRIC has beaten electrifying in Lewis Hamiton’s world, with news he has parted ways with his most iconic road car.

In selling the one-off Pagani Zonda 760 LH, the seven time Formula One world champion has turned a healthy profit – and also headed in a new direction in car choice (kinda): He’s swapped it for a hybrid.

The Briton purchased the Pagani back in 2014 for the equivalent of the $NZ3.2 million, but has now parted ways with the purple supercar, selling it for an eye-watering $17m, according to Motorsportweek.com and other news outlets.

The LH designation for a machine ordered personally from Horacio Pagani is explained by the it having a manual transmission – which, by the sounds of it, hardly made it any easier to drive.

Hamilton who has often been spotted driving the car in Monaco where he resides and is openly derisive about its limitations in that environment.

He famously called it “terrible” to drive around the streets of the principality.

“The Zonda is terrible to drive,” Hamilton said of the Mercedes-V12 powered 350kmh machine. “It’s the best-sounding car I own, but handling-wise it’s the worst.”

After just one year of owning the car, the Mercedes driver was involved in a small crash with three other vehicles, which he blamed on a lack of sleep and too much heavy partying.

Hamilton, who has been quiet on social media in the weeks following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix final, in which he was controversially beaten to the title by Max Verstappen, hasn’t spoken about the sale, but a report says his motive is an increasing environmental awareness.

It is believed he rarely drove the car, opting to instead use electric vehicles where possible given his passion for the environment.

“The reasons are in-line with the attitude that the Mercedes champion is taking in terms of ethics: in fact, his cars will be, at a minimum, hybrids,” the report states.

However, while Hamilton’s next purchase will be in keeping with that trend, it’s not going to be a Toyota Prius.

Hamilton has reported bought into the Mercedes-AMG One, incorporating a high-performance hybrid engine technology developed by the Formula 1 team and a car he has had a hand in developing, though that process has been long-winded. 

The model was announced five years ago and still isn’t in production, though that moment isn’t now far off, with prototypes now undergoing final evaluation.

The car runs a turbocharged 1.6-litre petrol engine and employs four electric motors. Only 275 will be built, and each was sold long ago.