Not Since Damon Hill in 1996 has a British Drver officially been procalimed the best in the world, but not since the days of the Senna/Prost feud has a world championship been decided after such an incredible and dramatic race. Lewis Hamilton came into the race with a "comfortable" 7 point lead over rival Felipe Massa, meaning only a top 5 finish was needed by the McLaren driver to take the glory. After the lights went out, what happened over the following 2 hours would go down in Grand Prix folklore, resulting in Lewis Hamilton joining an illustrious list of British World Champions, Mike Hawthorn (1958), Graham Hill (1962 & 1968), Jim Clark (1963 & 1965), John Surtees (1964), Jackie Stewart (1969, 1971 & 1973), James Hunt (1976), Nigel Mansell (1992) and Damon Hill (1996). A very exclusive club indeed
THE RACE
About 5 minutes before the start, the heavens opened and the rain began to bucket down, The stewards as a result decided to give the teams an extra 10 minutes to change to Intermediate tyres in order to accomodate the deluge. Hamilton had qualified in 4th spot with Massa on the pole in front of his home crowd, and due to criticism of Hamilton's "agressive" driving style recently, it was imperative that Hamilton had to survive the opening lap, something he failed to do the previous year. As the lights went out and the race began, Massa as expected made a blistering getaway while Hamilton dropped behind his team-mate Heikki Kovalainen. Kovalainen ran wide going into the Senna S allowing Hamilton and Alonso to slip underneath, Alonso then took Hamilton going into the next corner while behind there was Mayhem, David Coulthard was tapped by Nico Rosberg who then spun into the path of Kazuki Nakajima causing damage to both cars Nelson Piquet spun off into retirement in a completely unrelated incident, as for Coulthard, it was a sad sad way to end his illustrious 14 year career in the sport, amazingly, these 2 would stand as the only cars to fail to finish all day)
CHAMMPIONSHIP WATCH - Hamilton 98, Massa 97
The safety car came out as a result for 2 laps while the mess was cleared and the race resumed, Massa sprinted away, Alonso and Vettel had got ahead of Hamilton at this point leaving Lewis down in 6th place behind Jarno Trulli, but then the track began to dry rapidly with Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella the first to react, and his lap times were immedaitely quicker come his first full flying lap, this prompted several of the mid-pack cars to change to slicks, the leaders however left it till the last possible moment, as a result, Fisichella found himself up in 5th place and after the rush for slicks, Hamilton found himself down in 7th
CHAMPIONSHIP WATCH - Massa 97, Hamilton 96
Hamilton quickly dispatched Trulli and then set about getting past Fisichella which took longer than he would have liked, netherless, he was up to 5th eventually but a long way off the leaders, speaking of which, Massa was now finsing himself under some pressure from Sebastian Vettel, pressure he didnt really need, but he neednt have worried, Vettel was running a completely different 3 stop strategy and pitted shortly after that pressure, this promoted Hamilton up to 4th but he was now coming under severe pressure from Toyota's Timo Glock, he though like Vettel was running a different strategy and he pitted on the half way point to fuel up till the end of the race leaving Hamilton in the clear again in 4th.
CHAMPIONSHIP WATCH - Hamilton 99, Massa 97
After the 2nd round of pitstops which took place with around 30 laps remaining, Massa retained his comfortable lead over Alonso and Vettel (who had a further stop to make) with Raikkonen 4th and Hamilton 5th, at this point there were no worries whatsoever in the McLaren camp, theyknew Vettel had to stop again and now Kovalainen had fought his way back up to 6th to support Hamilton's rear, and when Vettel made his final stop, he slotted back in between Hamilton and Kovalainen but importantly, about 15 seconds behind the briton, all Hamilton had to do now was keep the car on the track and run reliably, and the title was his...
...until a quite amazing development in terms of the wather forecasts, rain was expected to arrive before the end of the race, and heavy too. THe questionw as though, WHEN would it come, the answer would arrive on lap 63 (8 laps to go) as the mechanics and TV pit-lane reporters felt the first few drops of rain that would prove to be so crucial, within 2 laps, it was a downpour, and now it was clear Intermediate tyres were needed, but with the race so close to its conclusion, was it worth gambling on keeping the slick tyres.
The answer was apparent, over the next 4 laps, 17 of the 18 remaining drivers decided to take no risks and pit for Intermediates, the one that gambled was that man on the one stop strategy, Timo Glock, and he would prove to be a telling factor later on.
After the rush for Inter's, Hamilton found himself down in 5th place, but because Vettel pitted a lap earlier, Vettel was now within striking distance of the McLaren. Massa however comfortably kept his lead continuing his dominant display, he could'nt do much more than what he was doing, Sebastian Vettel he hoped would be his saving grace. And with 2 laps to go, it looked like his prayers were answered, after letting through Robert Kubica to unlap himself, Hamilton ran wide going into the final turn and Vettel took the chance with both hands and drove away from the struggling McLaren, it looked like Hamilton had blown it for the 2nd year running
CHAMPIONSHIP WATCH - Massa 97, Hamilton 97 (Massa ahead on countback)
With Vettel increasing his lead over Hamilton further going into the final lap, the home crowd were beginning to sense that their man Felipe Massa was about to achieve his lifetimes ambition of becoming Brazil's first world champion since the late Ayrton Senna back in 1991 and when he crossed the line, it seemed as all of Brazil was jumping up in celebration of their new hero, but Lewis Hamilton, still down in 6th in the worsening conditions still had half a lap to go, but he was getting nowhere near catching Vettel, it seemed like the title was going to go to the youg Brazilian. But then coming out of the infield complex and towards the final turn, the most amazing turn of events, Timo Glock, still on slick tyres was now struggling to stay on the track and slowing a lot due to his slicks giving him zero grip on the wet surface, his gamble failed to pay off and both Vettel and (more importantly) Hamilton took their chance to move further up the order, Lewis Hamilton's prayers were answered there and then as this promoted him back into 5th place and back into the lead of the world championship, the Ferrari mechanics had no clue as to what happened when the McLaren crossed the line, they believed Massa was champion, until they looked at the timing screens which were showing Hamilton in the 5th place that he needed to steal the title by 1 point. This triggered mass hysteria in the McLaren team garage with Hamilton's Girlfriend, the popstar Nicole Scherzinger (Pussycat Dolls) and his younger brother Nicolas joining in the celebrations.
RACE RESULT (TOP 8)
1. FELIPE MASSA - Ferrari ................ 71 laps in 1h 34m 11.435
2. Fernando Alonso - Renault ................ + 13.298
3. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari ................ + 16.235
4. Sebastian Vettel - STR Ferrari ................ + 38.011
5. Lewis Hamilton - McLaren Mercedes ................ + 38.907
6. Timo Glock - Toyota ................ + 44.368
7. Heikki Kovalainen - McLaren Mercedes ................ + 55.074
8. Jarno Trulli - Toyota ................ + 1m 08.463
FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
DRIVERS TOP 10
1. LEWIS HAMILTON 98, 2. Felipe Massa 97, =3. Kimi Raikkonen 75, =3. Robert Kubica 75, 5. Fernando Alonso 61, 6. Nick Heidfeld 60, 7. Heikki Kovalainen 53, 8. Sebastian Vettel 35, 9. Jarno Trulli 31, 10. Timo Glock 25
CONSTRUCTORS
1. FERRARI 172, 2. McLaren Mercedes 151, 3. BMW Sauber 135, 4. Renault 80, 5. Toyota 56, 6. STR Ferrari 39, 7. Red Bull Renault 29, 8. Williams Toyota 26, 9. Honda 14, 10. Force India Ferrari 0
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