The Complete 2007 Brazilian GP Review

"For sure we were not in the strongest position at some points of the season, but we always believed that we could recover, we could do a better job than the others and even in the hard times everybody was sticking together and we didn't give up," smiled Kimi Raikkonen, as he celebrated the most unlikely of championship victories.

There was absolutely no doubt that Raikkonen and Ferrari were fast enough to deserve this title. The only surprise was how they pulled it off when arithmetic had been against them for many months.

The slump that followed Raikkonen's commanding win in Australia had proved costly. He was all-but-invisible in the subsequent five races, especially after that embarrassing Monaco qualifying error.

His race pace at Indianapolis provided some hope for a revival, but the Finn was still 26 points adrift when he returned to Europe. Although he then clicked with the Ferrari at last and reeled off three crushing wins and four podiums in the next eight rounds, the deficit remained a seemingly insurmountable 17 points with two races to go.

The chances of Lewis Hamilton scoring only three more points in China and Brazil when he had been averaging seven per race up to that stage seemed extremely slim. So no-one expected that the McLaren driver would manage just to take just two - while Raikkonen swept to the 20 he required to complete a staggering turnaround of fortune.

Except it appears this season where nothing has been as it seems could yet take one final, belated, twist with the news that McLaren are intending to appeal against the stewards' decision not to penalise the BMWs and Nico Rosberg for anomalies in fuel temperature.

This world championship has generated many negative headlines, but it did at least seem to resolve itself in a classic race. Now there is a possibility that rather than Raikkonen celebrating an overdue first title in a shower of ticker-tape on the victory podium, McLaren and Hamilton could collect the crown in the more sober environment of an appeal court - should proceedings go ahead and end in their favour.

Having done so much so well in his remarkable debut season, it was cruel that Hamilton's year suddenly started running true to the pre-season predictions at the critical moments, as some rookie anxiousness crept into his driving, and McLaren proved slightly fragile.

"I just felt like someone, somewhere, didn't want me to win the title," Hamilton mused. "I've had a few tyre problems, I made a mistake in the last race, and then something happened to me at the beginning today, but that's racing.

"To think I've come from GP2 to be ranked number two in the world is a positive thing, and I know we'll be strong next year. We'll do a better job, for sure, the team will keep pushing, and I've got the experience now and I'll bank that. I can't wait."

Amid Raikkonen's triumph and Hamilton's drama, Fernando Alonso's year and title challenge came to a muted end, as he finished a very distant third in the race, and a much closer third in the championship.

But he had already admitted that what he was really looking forward to was this draining and controversial season being over, and now it was. What the future holds for the outgoing champion and McLaren remains a mystery, and could sustain the drama into the winter break.

No such uncertainty for the new champion. His ability, temperament and reputation had all come under severe questioning when he trailed Massa in the spring, but he shrugged off the criticism and soon showed his true class.

Many wondered how F1's least emotional man would respond to winning a title. The answer was that the famous 'ice' melted a little - and he smiled as he rattled off relatively gregarious responses in the post-race press conference, even remembering to thank the team and sponsors with almost NASCAR-esque efficiency. After six years in which his predominant feeling had been frustration, Raikkonen was happy at last.

"I love the team, I have such a good time with the team, I enjoy Formula One much more now than last year," he said.

"I have much better feelings from this year than any other year, so I must say to all the people who have been helping me: thanks to them.

"For sure, there have been hard times in the career, but that's normal for everybody. This is what I've always wanted and I've got it now so anything that comes after this can only be a plus."

He also had words of comfort for the man who seemed assured of crown two hours earlier.

"I know that this hurts for Lewis, because you've been working for a whole year and then when you lose it, it's not a nice feeling and it's a long time before you can try to win it again," Raikkonen said.

"You try to take it when it comes and it worked well for us this year. I lost it a couple of years ago by two points. Luckily we were on the right side this time..."

Practice

Practice one - Friday am

Persistent drizzle - interspersed with the odd bout of more concerted rainfall - meant that the decisive weekend got off to a rather flat start.

Confident that the rest of the weekend would be dry, Fernando Alonso did not even bother to go out for first practice, while the Ferraris waited until the final moments before emerging and taking a one-two, with Kimi Raikkonen ahead of Felipe Massa.

Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest, behind Heikki Kovalainen and Nico Rosberg. Even though Hamilton only completed 10 laps during the session, he managed to illegally use a second set of wet tyres - prompting a stewards' inquiry and fears of a costly penalty. In the event McLaren were merely fined, as were Honda and Super Aguri after making the same error on Jenson Button and Takuma Sato's cars.

"Lewis did an installation lap on one set of wet tyres, and we just put on another set," team boss Ron Dennis explained. "It was 100 percent our fault. We are trying maybe too hard, and it was a silly mistake."

BMW agreed with Alonso's forecast and kept their drivers in the garage too, while Renault decided to use the session to attend to some mechanical issues on Giancarlo Fisichella, so the Italian became the fourth driver not to set a time.

Practice two - Friday pm

There was no question of sitting out the afternoon session as the initial damp patches were soon cleared and the track began offering some representative grip.

Unruffled by the prospect of a post-session visit to the stewards over the tyre error, Hamilton set the pace with a 1:12.767 lap, a tenth ahead of Alonso. The Ferraris were third and fourth.

Fisichella was very satisfied with his Renault's pace in fifth, with Robert Kubica completing the top six.

Kazuki Nakajima made a strong start to his first weekend as a Formula One race driver by lapping just 0.009 seconds slower than his Williams teammate Nico Rosberg in eighth.

Practice three - Saturday am

Massa hit the top in the final session, in which just 0.132 seconds covered the Brazilian, Hamilton and Raikkonen.

But Alonso was an ominous eight tenths of a second off the pace in eighth, having gained a lot less time than his main rivals when they all tried the supersoft tyres.

Red Bull's Mark Webber filled the top four spot left open by Alonso's troubles, with Jarno Trulli revived by a switch to the Toyota T-car in fifth, after struggling on Friday.

Massa may have taken his crown as the Brazilian crowd's darling, but Rubens Barrichello reminded the fans that they had two home drivers in the field by going sixth quickest.

While Nick Heidfeld took seventh, his BMW teammate Robert Kubica was only classified 20th after an electronics problem stranded him trackside with 17 minutes remaining.

Qualifying

Part one

The Toro Rossos maintained their recent strong form and breezed through to Q2 - which meant at least two drivers from the leading eight teams would be amongst the early departures.

Jenson Button looked like a prime candidate as he continued to struggle with his Honda. He edged up from 17th to 16th with his final run, but Heikki Kovalainen appeared to be on course to make up for a poor first lap and push the Briton back outside the cut-off point.

That was until Kovalainen reached Juncao and made the error that left him 17th and out, and allowed Button to reach Q2.

"I just ran out of track and had to slow down at a very critical moment," said the Renault driver, who was 0.024 seconds shy of 16th. "The next straight is uphill and I lost the time. It's just my mistake, that's all."

A Williams also exited in Q1, as Kazuki Nakajima proved unable to match his practice performance amid the pressure of his first F1 qualifying session.

"I don't know why, but the car felt quite different in qualifying compared to this morning's practice session and I couldn't get it completely right," Nakajima said.

The Super Aguris and Spykers were also knocked out. Anthony Davidson had been substantially faster than teammate Takuma Sato in Japan and China, but this time it was Sato who set the Super Aguri pace by half a second as they took a disappointing 18th and 20th.

Adrian Sutil only managed one run before a fuel pressure fault halted his Spyker. Nevertheless he still out-paced his teammate and back row partner Sakon Yamamoto.

Part two

Button's Q1 reprieve mattered little as he could only reach 16th in the next session. But Rubens Barrichello wrestled another 0.5 seconds out of the troublesome Honda and claimed 11th, just 0.044 seconds from a top ten spot, leaving Button baffled.

"All weekend I've been miles off, I don't know why. The car just doesn't have any grip," said Button.

"Rubens is saying the car feels good, but I don't understand that. Whatever we do to the car, the car just doesn't work.

"I don't quite understand how Rubens is getting so much out of it, but there you go, well done to him."

Barrichello admitted to a touch of regret at having not reached Q3.

"I am very pleased to have had a stronger weekend so far here at my home race but at the same time a little disappointed that we could not make it through to the final qualifying session," he said.

Renault have left Brazil celebrating titles in each of the last two seasons. After their 2007 qualifying session it looked like the odd point might be their limit at Interlagos this time, as Giancarlo Fisichella followed Kovalainen's poor lap by managing only 12th in Q2.

The Toro Rossos filled row seven, Sebastian Vettel ahead. The German was contented - "a few races ago if you had said I would be 13th on the grid in Brazil I would have been very happy and it shows we are definitely making progress" - but teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi had hoped for better in his last race with the team.

"I think we had more to give this afternoon," he said. "Q1 was okay, but in Q2, I seemed to suffer with a lot of understeer, especially in sectors two and three, as well as graining on the tyres."

Another man bidding farewell to his team took 15th, as Ralf Schumacher ended his Toyota career with another underwhelming qualifying performance.

"I didn't have any particular problems in Q2," he said. "The traffic was fine and the car felt reasonable enough. I just simply didn't get it right this time which is a pity but that's the way it goes sometimes."

Part three

The Ferrari teammates had led a session apiece in Q1 and Q2, but Felipe Massa took control in the session that mattered.

His first flying lap of 1:12.128 was three tenths of a second clear of the competition, and he shifted the benchmark to 1:11.931 on his second set of tyres.

But his pole came under threat when Lewis Hamilton made a substantial improvement in the middle sector on his second run. The McLaren was 0.074 seconds faster than Massa at the second split, but was not so rapid on the climb past the pits and missed pole by 0.151 seconds.

"It was very close between me and Lewis in the end," Massa admitted. "I was slightly expecting my engineer to maybe say P2 but in the end one tenth was close but it was enough to be in front."

While Hamilton felt a conservative approach to the final turn might have cost him pole, he was perfectly content to start the title decider from second - ahead of both his championship rivals.

"I think I just lost a little bit of time in the last corner," he said. "It wasn't a mistake; I just didn't want to lose what I had up until then. Apart from that, it was a close to perfect lap and I'm very, very happy. It's a good place for us to start."

Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso had to wonder how they would come from behind to overhaul Hamilton's points advantage after only managing third and fourth respectively.

The Finn had encountered Hamilton (on an out-lap) while on his final run. He admitted the McLaren had slightly delayed him, but wasn't interested in stoking another controversy.

"It didn't help. I ran wide and it cost a bit of lap time," Raikkonen said. "For sure, there could have been a slightly easier way to let me pass, but it is the way it is now and it doesn't interest me anymore."

The Briton apologised to Raikkonen and no protest was filed, but Hamilton did get embroiled in a heated exchange on the matter with a determined French journalist. He ultimately ended the dialogue with the phrase: "I just don't want to talk to you to be honest..."

Alonso was a subdued presence after qualifying. His first run had only been good enough for fifth - behind the highly impressive Mark Webber - and although he edged ahead of the Red Bull at the end, he remained two places and 0.274 seconds adrift of his title rival.

"The balance was not too bad, the car was quite good and we were not quick enough," he said. "We are on completely the same strategy, so it will be difficult to recover any points. I wanted a miracle in China, I need another one here."

Webber held on to fifth and his best starting position of the season, while his Red Bull teammate David Coulthard carried more fuel and took ninth. Coulthard's session was complicated when his car was slightly under-filled with petrol, forcing him to conserve fuel when he would have normally been trying to burn it off.

The BMWs took sixth and seventh. Robert Kubica had held the edge over Nick Heidfeld until their last laps - when the Pole lost time getting around Alonso and then went wide at Juncao, while Heidfeld produced a "simply great" lap to slip ahead by 0.048 seconds. The German had escaped a scare in Q2 when an error on his flying lap left him on the bubble in 10th as the session ended.

Jarno Trulli continued to revel in the Toyota spare as he took eighth. Nico Rosberg completed the top ten, and with Nakajima nine places adrift, Williams' hopes of defending their fourth place in the constructors' against Red Bull were entirely on the German's shoulders.

Qualifying results

The Race

With a points cushion in his pocket and both title rivals in his mirrors as he lined up on the grid, everything seemed to be going Lewis Hamilton's way.

But that all changed within moments of the start of the race. Kimi Raikkonen made the best getaway, edging past the McLaren and alongside his teammate Felipe Massa into the Senna S.

Raikkonen stayed to the outside and tucked in behind Massa, but slithered sideways in the middle of the corner, costing the close-following Hamilton momentum.

Fernando Alonso had successfully fended off the faster-starting Mark Webber for fourth into the corner, then capitalised on Hamilton's delay to muscle ahead of his teammate through the Curva do Sol.

Hamilton could have spent the rest of the race in fourth and still become world champion unless Alonso overcame the Ferraris. But he wanted to control his own destiny and lined up a pass into the Descida do Lago.

As Alonso defended the inside, Hamilton locked up and slewed onto the run-off area, allowing Webber, both BMWs and Jarno Trulli to cruise past and demote him to eighth.

Worse was to follow for Hamilton. He repassed Trulli's Toyota with minimal difficulty, then benefited when Nick Heidfeld ran wide. But having reached sixth he suddenly slowed before the backstraight, unable to find a gear.

"I knew I had the pace to get back my position, but I was downshifting into Turn Four and the car just selected neutral," he said. "I coasted for some time. Eventually it clicked back in and I was able to get it going - I don't know how."

"A default criteria in the gearbox selected neutral for a period of time and then it sorted itself out," explained team boss Ron Dennis - but by the time it had done so, Hamilton was 18th and 40 seconds behind the leading Ferraris.

All was not lost, however, for this was already proving to be an unusually destructive and attritional race by modern standards.

A first corner midfield traffic jam saw Tonio Liuzzi lose his front wing against Giancarlo Fisichella's Renault, just as the Italian's teammate Heikki Kovalainen bounced off Ralf Schumacher's Toyota and picked up a puncture.

Renault's afternoon soon deteriorated further. While trying to fend off Kazuki Nakajima into the Senna S next time around, Fisichella ran wide and across the grass, before rejoining in the path of Sakon Yamamoto. The Spyker nearly flew clean over the Renault in the spectacular collision that ensued.

"He just came back onto the racing line," said the stunned Yamamoto. "It's a strange situation as normally when you go back on you avoid going onto the racing line, but he didn't so I couldn't do anything other than crash into him."

"The car was very hard to control or slow down on the grass," said Fisichella. "It was just a racing incident, and I am sorry that it ended both of our races."

Kovalainen lasted another 34 laps before a suspected breakage at the rear of his battered car sent him into a firm meeting with the Curva do Sol barriers while running 15th - ending his 100% finishing record.

Once back up to speed, Hamilton wasted little time in passing Adrian Sutil and Rubens Barrichello, whose promising qualifying result had been wasted by a jump-start penalty.

He then gained four places on a remarkable 16th lap - overtaking Schumacher into the Descida do Lago, cruising past an extremely compliant Anthony Davidson through the following kink, then drafting ahead of Takuma Sato on the pits straight.

Hamilton's next position was handed to him rather more easily, as he passed Webber's stationary Red Bull after a transmission problem took the Australian out of fifth - severely denting the team's hopes of beating Williams to fourth in the constructors'.

At this stage Alonso was technically on course for the championship in third position. But the prospects did not look good for McLaren. The Spaniard was losing 0.7-1.0 seconds per lap to the leading Ferraris, and although Massa continued to lead Raikkonen by a couple of seconds, it was inconceivable that the Brazilian would finish in front if his teammate could grab the title by winning the race.

The Ferraris pitted on laps 20 and 21 - Massa stopping first but remaining in the lead - with both McLarens coming in on the following lap. While Alonso was fuelled for a very long middle stint, Hamilton was switched to a three-stop strategy and given the fragile supersoft tyres for a 14-lap sprint.

Hamilton rejoined 10th - a position recently vacated by Button when his Honda's engine overheated. Teammate Barrichello's V8 expired in more dramatic fashion 20 laps later.

"It's quite a pity because our result wouldn't have been fantastic, but the actual car felt reasonable - I was doing times that were quite competitive," said Button.

"We didn't expect these temperatures and the engine overheated. That's disappointing, and that's something we've really got to concentrate on next year - making sure these sort of things don't happen again, because not only are we slow, but we're unreliable, so it's a big issue."

They were just two retirements in what was turning into a very messy midfield race. Sutil nearly did McLaren a massive favour by clattering into Davidson at the Senna S just as the Ferraris came up to lap the pair. The German was somewhat ambiguous on whether the brake problem that subsequently caused his retirement contributed to, or resulted from, the tangle. Either way, the Ferraris safely navigated the obstacles, and Davidson was able to rejoin at the back of the field following a pitstop for repairs.

There was more chaos in the pitlane, as Nakajima ran into two of his mechanics while attempting to make his first F1 pitstop on lap 30. Both escaped serious injury, and the Japanese driver was able to continue in 12th place. He ultimately finished 10th, escaping a late collision with Coulthard and setting an impressive fifth-fastest race lap.

Amid these incidents, Sebastian Vettel made a comparatively prosaic departure from a strong 10th place with a hydraulic problem on his Toro Rosso.

While the Ferraris continued to stride away at the front, Alonso came under pressure from the three-stopping Robert Kubica, who dived past the McLaren for third at the Senna S on lap 32. Fellow three-stopper Trulli had jumped Heidfeld for fifth thanks to his shorter first stop, and then pulled away, leaving the BMW just ahead of the battling Rosberg and David Coulthard.

Hamilton was not gaining on this group as rapidly as he needed to in order to revitalise his title challenge. He overtook both Vettel and Barrichello before they retired - passing the latter with a sumptuous dive at the Senna S from a seemingly impossible distance - but the gap to the leaders rose from 51 to 55 seconds during this stint, and he still had an additional stop to make.

Ferrari still needed to swap their cars around to ensure that Raikkonen became champion, and it looked like some clumsy choreography may be called for as Massa established a three-second lead during the middle stint.

But an error at Juncao on lap 44 allowed Raikkonen right back onto the Brazilian's tail. Massa pitted six laps later, and three quick low fuel laps from Raikkonen then allowed him to emerge with the lead he required.

"We had it planned, we knew what we wanted to do as a team," said the Finn. "So we were not really racing against each other. A big thanks to the team, a big thanks to Felipe. That's what we needed and that's what we got."

Massa confirmed that he had made life straightforward for his teammate: "We were talking beforehand that the only way for Kimi to win the championship was that Lewis should have to be out of the top six and if he was out of the top six and the team needed my support, I would be very happy to help and that's what I did."

Alonso was now 50 seconds behind the Ferrari formation, and relying on disaster striking the red cars.

"In the first two laps I was quite optimistic because I was running behind them quite easily and I thought maybe it was the pace of the race, but probably they were taking care of their tyres or whatever and when they pushed hard it was impossible for me to follow anymore," he said.

"Anything can happen, so I was keeping the pace in third position with fingers crossed that maybe one of the Ferraris has a problem or something."

Raikkonen was confident that this would not happen.

"We were just taking it easy, saving the tyres and the cars. We could have gone much faster if we wanted to," he said.

Hamilton needed a similar miracle to his teammate, although the hectic dice between the BMWs and Rosberg could have provided one.

Kubica had not managed to pull far enough ahead before his third stop and rejoined behind the battling Heidfeld and Rosberg, but passed them both when the Williams driver's dive down the inside at the Senna S on lap 59 sent both cars extremely wide.

"The manoeuvre was hard and on the limit, but if I had not opened the door we would have crashed," Heidfeld complained, having rejoined behind Rosberg.

The Williams managed to catch Kubica in the remaining laps as the Pole nursed an overheating engine, and overtook the BMW for fourth on the penultimate lap. Rosberg therefore clinched Williams' fourth place in the constructors' standings, and his own best F1 result to date.

"The pressure was on today because everything was on the line, the constructors' position for the team and my position in the drivers' so I am very pleased with the outcome," he said.

Hamilton had managed to pass Coulthard in the pitstops and then moved up to seventh when Trulli pitted for the third and final time. But that would be his limit, as Kubica and Heidfeld remained nine seconds ahead at the flag.

He was then thrown a final lifeline two hours after the race finished, when apparent irregularities in Rosberg, Kubica and Heidfeld's fuel samples raised the prospect of all three being penalised.

After an agonising wait it was confirmed that no action would be taken, which was just as well as by that time Ferrari were well into their championship celebrations. The subsequent news that McLaren could appeal the decision restored the uncertainty, however.

The twist of fate that Alonso had been counting on failed to materialise, and instead Raikkonen eased away from Massa - triumphantly setting the fastest lap with three laps to go. He duly clinched his sixth win of the season, and with it an incredible championship victory, although he did not take anything for granted at first.

"I wasn't really 100 percent sure because I wasn't sure if somebody would stop in front of Lewis when he was seventh," Raikkonen said.

"He finished and I finished, but there were people who needed to finish before I could be certain. I was just really waiting and it took a long time to hear that we finally won it.

"I'm very happy - it's an amazing, amazing day."

Race results

71 laps; 305.909km;
Weather: Dry and sunny.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1h28:15.270
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  +     1.493
 3.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    57.019
 4.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  +  1:02.848
 5.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  +  1:10.957
 6.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  +  1:11.317
 7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    1 Lap
 8.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  +    1 Lap
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +    1 Lap
10.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  +    1 Lap
11.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +    1 Lap
12.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    2 Laps
13.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  +    2 Laps
14.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    3 Laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:12.445

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)    43
Barrichello   Honda                (B)    40
Kovalainen    Renault              (B)    35
Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    34
Button        Honda                (B)    20
Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)    14
Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari       (B)     2
Fisichella    Renault              (B)     2


World Championship standings, round 17:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Raikkonen    110        1.  Ferrari              204
 2.  Hamilton     109        2.  BMW Sauber           101
 3.  Alonso       109        3.  Renault               51
 4.  Massa         94        4.  Williams-Toyota       33
 5.  Heidfeld      61        5.  Red Bull-Renault      24
 6.  Kubica        39        6.  Toyota                13
 7.  Kovalainen    30        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari     8
 8.  Fisichella    21        8.  Honda                  6
 9.  Rosberg       20        9.  Super Aguri-Honda      4
10.  Coulthard     14       10.  Spyker-Ferrari         1
11.  Wurz          13       11.  McLaren-Mercedes       -
12.  Webber        10
13.  Trulli         8
14.  Vettel         6
15.  Button         6
16.  R.Schumacher   5
17.  Sato           4
18.  Liuzzi         3
19.  Sutil          1
20.  Barrichello    0
21.  Speed          0
22.  Nakajima       0
23.  Davidson       0
24.  Yamamoto       0
25.  Albers         0
26.  Winklehock     -

Team-by-Team

Alonso sits out the damp first practice session while Hamilton is briefly threatened with a penalty after using too many sets of wet tyres. He escapes sanction and is fastest in the afternoon, before taking second on the grid next day while Alonso struggles to fourth.

Hamilton's fortunes wane in the race, as Raikkonen and Alonso pass him by the first corner and his attempt to reclaim third from his teammate sees him run wide and fall to eighth. A brief gearbox glitch on lap seven then drops him all the way to 18th.

He switches to a three-stop strategy and recovers to seventh, but it's not enough to stop Raikkonen stealing the title. Neither is Alonso's third, as he is left standing by the Ferraris, finishing a minute behind.

A disastrous end to the season for the outgoing champions. Poor qualifying pace leaves Fisichella and Kovalainen only 12th and 17th on the grid, with the rookie also making a small error. Both are involved in first corner tangles, and Kovalainen has to pit with a puncture.

He rejoins only to crash heavily later on due to a suspected breakage. Fisichella goes off again on lap two while dicing with Nakajima, then rejoins in Yamamoto's path and is violently collected by the Spyker.

Raikkonen snatches an unlikely title by taking victory ahead of teammate Massa. The Brazilian commands qualifying, with Raikkonen only third on the grid, but the Finn makes the best start and almost passes his teammate for the lead before settling into second. They run in formation for most of the race, but change positions in the final pit sequence to ensure that Raikkonen takes the win he requires to clinch his first world championship.

Barrichello is unusually happy with his car and qualifies 11th - to the bemusement of Button, who struggles to 16th. The Brazilian's promising form is wasted by a jumpstart penalty, and his engine then fails at half-distance. Button has a stronger race and runs 10th before his own V8 overheats on lap 20.

Kubica loses much of final practice with an electrical problem and is then frustrated that traffic and a slight error allow Heidfeld to pip him for sixth on the grid. The Pole - running lighter on a three-stop strategy - jumps ahead at the start, and passes Webber for fourth soon after. He later overtakes Alonso, although the McLaren regains the place when Kubica makes his second stop.

After his final pit visit Kubica emerges behind Heidfeld and Rosberg in sixth, then passes both when the Williams' overtaking move sends them wide. But troubled by overheating and a loss of tyre grip, he loses fourth to Rosberg with two laps to go. Heidfeld finishes right on his teammate's tail in sixth.

After an unhappy Friday, Trulli is revitalised by a switch to the T-car and qualifies eighth. Schumacher has no particular problems yet is only 15th on the grid. His final race for Toyota is similarly low-key, as he sustains slight damage in the first corner tangles, is briefly delayed by a wheelnut problem at a pitstop, and finishes 11th. Trulli runs a three-stop strategy and holds fifth in the middle stages, before falling to eighth behind the BMWs and Hamilton after his last stop.

Webber qualifies a season-best fifth with the heavier Coulthard in ninth. But just when fourth in the constructors' looks to be in their grasp, their race proves less successful. Webber retires early with transmission trouble, while Coulthard lacks the pace to stay in the points battle and finishes ninth, surviving a late tangle with Nakajima.

Rosberg secures Williams' fourth place in the constructors' standings with a career-best fourth place from 10th on the grid. He races with the BMWs throughout, and passes both in the final laps despite almost colliding with Heidfeld and having to re-pass Kubica after running wide during the ambitious move.

Nakajima is quick in practice but only manages 19th in qualifying. He makes good progress on a long first stint, then mars his race by colliding with two mechanics at his first stop. He recovers to 10th, escaping contact with Coulthard in the closing stages, and setting the fifth-fastest race lap.

Vettel and Liuzzi qualify a promising 13th and 14th, although the departing Italian believes their practice pace suggested they were capable of more. He damages his front wing on Fisichella's Renault at the start of the race and spends the rest of the afternoon at the back after repairs, finishing 13th. Vettel runs on the edge of the top ten until a mid-race hydraulic failure.

Both Sutil and Yamamoto take trips off the road in practice, and then a fuel pressure fault forces the German to park in Q1. Despite this he still beats Yamamoto to 21st on the grid. Sutil races with the Super Aguris and Schumacher at first, but tangles with Davidson and later has to retire with a related brake problem. Yamamoto makes a violent exit on lap two when Fisichella rejoins the track right in front of him after an error, leaving the Spyker with no choice but to slam into the Renault.

Sato qualifies 18th, two places ahead of Davidson. They are more competitive with the established teams in the race, and battle with Schumacher and Nakajima at first. Davidson is delayed when Sutil runs into him at the first corner, spinning the Super Aguri and forcing a pitstop for repairs that leaves him 14th and last. Sato cannot maintain his pace and finishes a distant 12th.

Lap-by-Lap

Pre-race: Adrian Sutil does not appear on the grid. He'll start from the pits.

Heikki Kovalainen is bumped into the air at the start © Reuters

Lap 1: On pole for the sixth time this year - and the second consecutive season in Brazil - Felipe Massa leads cleanly into Turn One.

Kimi Raikkonen gets the jump on Lewis Hamilton - as does Fernando Alonso at the bottom of the Senna S. Hamilton attempts to retaliate at Turn Four but runs wide and drops to eighth.

Mark Webber moves up to fourth ahead of Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeld, Jarno Trulli, Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, David Coulthard, Rubens Barrichello, Sebastian Vettel, Takuma Sato, Jenson Button, Giancarlo Fisichella, Kazuki Nakajima, Anthony Davidson, Sakon Yamamoto, Ralf Schumacher (who collided with Heikki Kovalainen at the first turn, sending the Finn off the track) and Sutil.

Kovalainen pits for repairs - as does Tonio Liuzzi who also sustained first-lap damage. Massa leads by 0.8 seconds.

Lap 2: Massa leads by 0.6 seconds. Hamilton passes Trulli. Yamamoto slams into Fisichella. Both cars retire to the pits.

Lap 5: Raikkonen posts a 1:14.165 to close to within 0.6 seconds of the leader.

Lap 7: Hamilton passes Heidfeld as the German runs wide at Turn One.

Lap 8: Hamilton slows to a crawl, then picks up speed again... He slumps to 18th. Kubica passes Webber.

Lap 9: Massa laps in 1:13.909. Barrichello serves a drive-through for jumping the start.

Lap 11: Massa goes faster again: 1:13.887. He leads by 1.8 seconds. Hamilton passes Barrichello.

Lewis Hamilton runs wide fighting with Fernando Alonso © XPB/LAT

Lap 12: Hamilton passes Sutil.

Lap 13: Button and Nakajima pass Sato.

Lap 14: Another fastest lap to Massa: 1:13.118. Sato repasses Nakajima.

Lap 15: Both Ferraris are in the 1:13.0... and 0.7 seconds apart. Webber pulls off to retire. Hamilton passes Schumacher, Davidson and Sato. Nakajima repasses Sato again, too.

Lap 17: Massa posts a 1:12.954. Hamilton passes Nakajima: he's now 11th.

Lap 18: Massa clips his best to 1:12.932.

Lap 19: Massa extends his lead to 2.1 seconds. Kubica pits. On a clear track, Hamilton is running at a similar pace to the leaders.

Lap 20: Massa pits. Raikkonen leads - and sets a new fastest lap, 1:12.665.

Lap 21: Raikkonen pits. Alonso leads. Button pulls off.

Lap 22: Alonso, Trulli, Vettel, Hamilton, Davidson and Sutil pit. Hamilton is the only one to opt for super-soft tyres. Massa leads.

Lap 23: Rosberg and Coulthard pit. Sutil hits Davidson at Turn One and both cars spin.

Lap 24: Davidson pits... and is delayed behind team-mate Sato, a lap ahead.

Lap 25: Heidfeld and Sato pit.

Kazuki Nakajima runs over his crew on his first Formula 1 pitstop © XPB/LAT

Lap 26: Sutil pits. He remains stationary for a while, pits again one lap later and eventually rejoins for a while.

Lap 29: Hamilton passes Barrichello to take 12th.

Lap 30: Barrichello and Liuzzi pit.

Lap 31: Nakajima pits and knocks down two crew members.

Lap 33: Kubica passes Alonso. Hamilton passes Vettel. Schumacher pits.

Lap 34: Massa leads by 2.5 seconds. Kubica is another 20.5 seconds adrift in third. Vettel pits to retire.

Lap 36: Hamilton is back in for softs. Kovalainen crashes.

Lap 38: Kubica pits.

Lap 40: Barrichello pits in a cloud of smoke.

Lap 42: Coulthard pits. Hamilton is eighth.

Lap 43: Trulli pits.

Lap 44: Massa runs wide and loses two seconds. The gap is 0.7 seconds. Sato pits.

Lap 48: The gap at the front is 1.5 seconds. Alonso is almost 40 seconds adrift in third.

Kimi Raikkonen wins the Brazilian Grand Prix and the World Championship © Reuters

Lap 50: Massa pits for super-softs. Raikkonen leads.

Lap 51: Heidfeld pits.

Lap 52: Alonso pits.

Lap 53: Raikkonen peels in... and resumes in the lead.

Lap 54: Raikkonen leads by 1.9 seconds. Rosberg pits, as does Liuzzi.

Lap 56: Hamilton pits.

Lap 57: Kubica pits.

Lap 58: Hamilton laps in 1:12.506 - the race's fastest yet.

Lap 61: Rosberg tries to pass Heidfeld at Turn One, sending both of them wide. Kubica passes both. Coulthard spins while trying to pass Nakajima.

Nakajima and Schumacher pit. Hamilton is about 22 seconds away from the fifth place he needs, with 10 laps to go.

Lap 63: Trulli pits. Hamilton moves up to seventh.

Lap 66: Raikkonen laps in 1:12.445. Rosberg and Kubica cross the line as one...

Felipe Massa, Jean Todt, Kimi Raikkonen, Fernando Alonso © XPB/LAT

Lap 67: ...and come within inches of a collision at Turn One. Kubica stays ahead - just.

Lap 69: Rosberg passes Kubica at Turn One.

Lap 71: Raikkonen wins the race by 1.4 seconds - and with it the championship.

His teammate Massa comes second with Alonso a distant third. Rosberg finishes fourth, Kubica fifth and Heidfeld sixth.

Hamilton is seventh - and second in the world title race, beating Alonso on a countback.

Trulli takes the final point. Raikkonen becomes Formula One's third championship-winning Finn, after Keke Rosberg (1982) and Mika Häkkinen (1998/99).