McLaren Falters In Brazil; Kimi Raikkonen Wins World Drivers' Championship

[PressRoom-GFN]

SAO PAULO, Brazil (Oct. 21, 2007) – With a dry track and the three title contenders on the grid's first two rows, the stage was set for Sunday's thrilling end to the 2007 Formula 1 season.

Would Lewis Hamilton be the first “rookie” World Champion or would his teammate, two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso make it three in a row? The outsider had to be Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen, who was seven points behind Hamilton and four in arrears to Alonso in the title bout.

When the race started and the all important sprint to the first corner unfolded, it was clear that Raikkonen got a great start, as he pulled alongside Hamilton with Felipe Massa in front. The two Ferraris lined up abreast through the first turn, a left-hander, and Alonso slipped to the inside of Hamilton. At the second turn, a right-hander, Massa pulled ahead with Raikkonen slightly slower and Hamilton had to back off to avoid a collision. Meanwhile, Alonso took advantage of the situation and at the approach to turn three, a left-hander, he pushed up the inside as the corner's second apex arrived.

Hamilton was now fourth and still trying to recover his position. When he tried to go around Alonso at the next turn, he ran wide and went into the run-off area, losing more places. In just a few seconds, Hamilton had dropped from second to eighth. But, he then quickly passed Jano Trulli's Toyota for seventh.

At the back of the field, Giancarlo Fisichella ran wide and as he regained the track, he was hit by Sakon Yamamoto, who clearly had not seen Fisichella's excursion.

The race began to settle down with Massa first, Raikkonen second, Alonso third and Mark Webber a very creditable fourth.

Hamilton needed to discard the early events from his mind as he tried to recover from seventh, but on lap 9, things went extremely wrong as his McLaren seemed to lose power or drive. By the end of the lap, he was 18th and his championship bid was in trouble. After a short but costly period during which presumably a solution to the problem was found, he began lapping at a competitive speed again and by lap 13 had gained two places to 16th.

Meanwhile, Robert Kubica was now fourth and Webber was in fifth. This may have signaled the start of problems for Webber, because on lap 16 he was forced to retire with mechanical troubles.

While Massa and Raikkonen continued their domination at the front, Alonso was unable to challenge the two Ferraris and slipped further back. Hamilton was now in 12th, but some 39 seconds behind Alonso in third.

Hamilton was gradually catching the cars ahead of him, but he needed at least a fifth-place finish to take the championship. On lap 18, he gained one more place, overtaking the Williams of newcomer Kazuki Nakajima.

The race now entered the first pit stop phase and on lap 21 Massa made his first stop.

The following lap Raikkonen made his pit stop, giving the lead to Alonso. On the same lap, Jenson Button was forced to retire with mechanical failure and that allowed Hamilton to move up to 10th.

On lap 23, Alonso made his first pit stop, returning the first two positions to the two Ferraris, which were 2.8 seconds apart. Hamilton followed into the pits shortly afterwards and emerged in 14th. Two laps later Adrian Sutil, in the Spyker, tagged Anthony Davidson, damaging both cars. Both cars were towards the back of the field, so attention was re-focused on the championship battle.

With the position of the championship contenders on lap 28, Raikkonen needed to pass Massa to win the race and have a chance at the title. If Alonso remained third, he could not win and the only challenge then was if Hamilton could get to fifth. In that case, Hamilton would win the championship.

Team orders are not allowed, but clearly Ferrari would not want Massa to win and so that part of the intrigue was predictable. The interest was in whether Hamilton could get to fifth. He was certainly pushing and on lap 29 took Rubens Barrichello.

On lap 33, Kazuki Nakajima made his first pit stop in Formula 1 and misjudged his stop, hitting two of his mechanics. Thankfully, they were not seriously injured, but they needed to go to the medical center for treatment. This incident was seemingly inexperience in the heat of the moment.

Alonso seemed unable to find any real pace and Robert Kubica in the BMW passed him for third.

Hamilton, meanwhile, slipped past Sebastien Vettel for 10th and on the next lap Ralf Schumacher made his pit stop, giving Hamilton one more position, moving him into ninth.

On lap 37, Hamilton made his second pit stop and emerged still in ninth.

The next lap, Heikki Kovalainen crashed after what appeared to be a suspension collapse and was eliminated from the event.

Four laps later, Rubens Barrichello’s Honda caught fire in the pit lane and ended his race.

The race continued until Massa made his last pit stop on lap 50. Raikkonen was producing some fast laps and when he made his final stop on lap 55, he returned to the track in front of Massa to take first. The first part of the puzzle was now in place and unless the front-runners had mechanical problems, the interest lay in what Hamilton could do during the race's closing segment. He continued to push hard and on lap 60 set the fastest lap of the race at 1:12.5.06.

Nico Rosberg was also having a great race in the Williams and by lap 61 he was fifth, but on the next lap he tried too hard to overtake Nick Heidfeld in the BMW and paid the price, as Kubica slipped past both of them to take fourth.

On lap 62, David Coultard in the Red Bull collided with Nakajima in the Williams, but both were able to continue. Two laps later, Trulli made his last pit stop and now Hamilton was seventh, but some 15 seconds behind Heidfeld. Hamilton continued to press until the checkered flag waved, but it was too much to ask and he finished in seventh.

Rosberg’s reward for an excellent drive was to pass Kubica for fourth.

But the real hero was Raikkonen, who won the race in 1:28:15.270 and secured the 2007 World Drivers' Championship. He has been such an unlucky driver in many ways in previous seasons with cars, which were unreliable. He remains one of the fastest drivers competing in Formula 1 and he has made a marvelous comeback in the season's second half after an indifferent start. We saw a worthy champion win the Brazilian race and the Drivers’ World Championship.

Of course there is disappointment in the Hamilton camp, but it must not be forgotten what a fantastic season this young “rookie” had. We also watched a marvelous Formula 1 season with the closest finish for a World Championship in years with Raikkonen collecting 110 points and Hamilton and Alonso both producing 109.

Raikkonen won the race in 1:28:15.270 with an average speed of 207.972 km/h [128.007 mph].
2nd Massa +1.493seconds
3rd Alonso +57.019
4th Rosberg +1:02.848
5th Kubica + 1:10.957
6th Heidfeld +1:11.317
7th Hamilton + 1 lap
8th Trulli + 1 lap
9th Coultard +1 lap
10th Nakajima + 1 lap
11th Schumacher + 1 lap
12th Sato + 2 laps
13th Liuzzi + 2 laps
14th Davidson +3 laps
Sutil unclassified
Barrichello unclassified
Kovalainen unclassified
Vettel unclassified
Button unclassified
Webber unclassified
Yamamoto unclassified
Fisichella unclassified

The Championship points are as follows:
Drivers
Raikkonen 110
Hamilton 109
Alonso 109
Massa 94
Heidfeld 61
Kubica 39
Kovalainen 30
Fisichella 21
Rosberg 20
Coultard 14
Wurz 13
Webber 10
Trulli 8
Vettel 6
Button 6
Schumacher 5
Sato 4
Liuzzi 3
Sutil 1
Barrichello 0
Speed 0
Nakajima 0
Davidson 0
Yamamoto 0

Constructors
Ferrari 204
BMW 101
Renault 51
Williams 33
Red Bull 24
Toyota 13
McLaren 8
STR Ferrari 8

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