Kimi Raikkonen clinched the 2007 F1 world championship by just a single point following his victory in the Brazilian GP.
The 2007 F1 season has been one of the most eventful, if not dramatic, seasons in recent memory. The finale in Brazil was no exception when Kimi Raikkonen defied the odds to overcome a seven-point deficit and snatch the F1 title.
Raikkonen had an excellent start to seize second place from Hamilton coming into the first corner. The Finn paced himself behind teammate Felipe Massa from that point. When Massa made his second stop, Raikkonen put the hammer down and had a string of fastest laps before entering the pits himself. Raikkonen’s effort allowed him to exit the pits in the race lead and never looked back.
Of course, Raikkonen needed more than the victory to claim the title. He needed Alonso to finish third or lower and Hamilton to finish sixth or lower: both outcomes were highly unlikely considering the stunning reliability and pace of McLaren. But for some reason, everything went wrong for both McLaren drivers.
Hamilton had a very poor start that saw him drop from second to fourth immediately behind Alonso. A couple of corners later, Hamilton attempted a very ambitious over-taking maneuver on Alonso hoping to snatch third place. The Brit however was forced to run off the track and ended up in eighth place.
Although Hamilton was able to claw back into sixth, the worst was yet to come however. Hamilton's car suffered a strange glitch when his McLaren wasn’t changing gears for a considerable amount of time during lap seven. As a result, Hamilton dropped to 18th place and was forced to play catch-up. Despite his best efforts, Hamilton could only manage to finish seventh: one point short of Raikkonen’s overall tally.
Fernando Alonso seemed to have a third-straight title in the bag following the unfortunate events that plagued his teammate Lewis Hamilton. Alonso was running a very competitive third during the first few laps. But as the race progressed, it was clear that he did not have the pace to match the two Ferrari’s ahead of him. By the time Raikkonen took the lead, the Spaniard was too far back to challenge for second place and ultimately the title. Alonso’s third place finish means that he is tied with Hamilton with 109 points in the standings. However, with both of them having won four races this season, it is Hamilton who is considered the runner-up in the championship due to having more second place finishes.
The dramatic events surrounding the title race overshadowed a very good performance from Nico Rosberg who crossed the finish line in fourth place securing his best finish this season for Williams Toyota.
The BMW-Sauber of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld finished fifth and sixth respectively. Jarno Trulli salvaged the last point for Toyota when he crossed the line in eighth place.
