The tortuous path to the title
There were many times during the wide-open 2008 season when it looked like Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa were doing their best to lose the world championship, but after a year of brilliance interspersed with errors, it was Hamilton who emerged on top by the most slender margin in Brazil. Adam Cooper recounts the full story of their epic duel
It's perhaps not surprising that we've all put so much emphasis on Lewis Hamilton's last lap pass of Timo Glock in Brazil, but of course that extra point represented just one of the 98 he required to win the title - in effect it was just one per cent of the total. The truth is that every point won and lost by both Hamilton and Felipe Massa over the course of 18 races played a part in determining the outcome of their battle.
"This is where it was decided," noted Ron Dennis in Brazil. "But the world championship is over the whole season. We had some bad luck, like the Canada pitlane exit when we were in command of the race, [Massa] had his refuelling problems. All these things, this is the ebb and flow of Grand Prix racing. But in the end there can only be one winner, and I'm so happy it's Lewis."
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