Post-GP Statistical Analysis: Brazil

Kimi Raikkonen World Champion

Kimi Raikkonen celebrates in style his 28th birthday (17th of October) by becoming the 29th Formula One World Champion. Of the 29 champions, he is the seventh youngest:

• Raikkonen won the title in his first year in Ferrari, something that in the past was achieved only by Juan Manuel Fangio in 1957 and Jody Scheckter in 1979.

• He is the third Finn to take the title after Keke Rosberg in 1982 (who incidentally raced with the same No. 6 as Raikkonen did this year) and Mika Hakkinen in 1998 and 1999.

• Kimi won the title by only one point, the second smallest margin in F1 history, after the 0.5 points that separated Niki Lauda (72) from Alain Prost (71.5) in 1984. The title was also won by only one point in 1958 (Hawthorn Champion, Moss second), 1961 (Phil Hill over Von Trips), 1964 (Surtees over Graham Hill), 1976 (Hunt over Lauda) 1981 (Piquet over Reutemann), and 1994 (M.Schumacher over Damon Hill).

• Before Raikkonen, the third-placed driver on the eve of the last race only ever won the title in 1950. Nino Farina won over Fangio and Fagioli, who were the points leaders going into the Italian Grand Prix.

• Kimi Raikkonen scored in Brazil his 25th fastest lap, climbing to the 5th spot on the all-time totals and matching his compatriot Mika Hakkinen. The all-time leader is Michael Schumacher, with a total of 76 fastest laps.

The championship permutations, lap by lap

This table highlights the championship points at every change of position of the three leading drivers. The virtual world champion is marked in bold:

What Hamilton lost

Lewis Hamilton lost the world championship at the last race. These are the relevant milestones he therefore missed:

• First rookie to win the title;

• Youngest driver to win the title - at 22 years, 9 months and 14 days (he can still claim this record if he wins in 2008);

• First driver of the 2000s to win a title in a McLaren (he can still claim this record if he wins in 2008);

• First driver after Alain Prost to win the championship with the car No. 2;

Hamilton is also the only driver to have scored a sequence of nine podium finishes in a season (which he did from Australia to Great Britain) and not win the title.

These are the best podium sequences of all-time and the relative world championship performances:

1) M.Schumacher, 19 podiums (USA 2001 - Japan 2002). Won the championship in 2001 and 2002.

2) Alonso, 15 podiums (Turkey 2005 - Canada 2006). Won the championship in 2005 and 2006.

3) Clark, 9 podiums (Belgium 1963 - South Africa 1963). Won the 1963 world championship.

4) Lauda, 9 podiums (Italy 1975 - Sweden 1976). Won the 1975 world championship; lost the 1976 title to James Hunt, having missed two of the 16 races.

5) Piquet, 9 podiums (Monaco 1987 - Portugal 1987). Won the 1987 world championship.

6) M.Schumacher, 9 podiums (Hungary 2000 - Brazil 2001). Won the championship in 2000 and 2001.

7) M.Schumacher, 9 (Europe 2004 - Italy 2004). Won the 2004 championship.

Winning the first race

As Kimi Raikkonen won the first race in Melbourne this year, this is the 27th time the first-race winner also goes on to win the title of that season. More interestingly, it's the 14th time in the last 18 seasons.

During this period, the only drivers who won the first race and then didn't clinch the championship were David Coulthard in 1997 and 2003, Eddie Irvine in 1999, and Giancarlo Fisichella in 2005. None of these drivers won a championship title so far.

100 is not enough

For the first time in history, two McLaren drivers were able to score more than 100 points during the season. Prior to 2007, only Mika Hakkinen in 1998 (100 points) and Kimi Raikkonen in 2005 (112) were able to score 100 points with a McLaren car, and only in 2004 one team, Ferrari, were able to finish the season with two drivers on more than 100 points. That year, Michael Schumacher won the title with 148 points over Barrichello at 114.

The other case where a driver was able to score more than 100 points and eventually lose the championship is 2006, when Michael Schumacher scored 121 points and lost the title to Alonso (134).

Qualifying notes

• Lewis Hamilton qualified for the 12th time in 2007 on the front row. It's not an absolute record for a season, as three drivers managed to record 16 front row starts in the past: Ayrton Senna in 1989, Alain Prost in 1993, and Damon Hill in 1996.

Hamilton however shattered the previous record for a rookie (Jacques Villeneuve, 9 front rows in 1996) and he is the first driver since Michael Schumacher in 2004 to record 12 front row starts.

In the 2000s, only Michael Schumacher was able to record 12 or more front row starts in a season. He did it in 2000 (12 front rows), 2001 (13), 2002 (13) and 2004 (12).

• Three drivers obtained in Interlagos the same spot in qualifying for the eighth time this year. Kimi Raikkonen was third for the eighth time; Jarno Trulli eighth for the eighth time; and Adrian Sutil, for the eighth time, was 21st.

• Best qualifying performance of the season for Mark Webber in fifth.

• The eleventh spot of Rubens Barrichello is his best qualifying performance since Monaco, when he was 9th.

• For the second straight year, Ralf Schumacher failed to record at least one front row start. The German was able to score at least one from 2001 to 2005.

• Heikki Kovalainen recorded the worst qualifying performance of his short career after Canada (19th, demoted to 22nd for an engine change).

Race notes

• Nico Rosberg obtained in Brazil the best result of his career, a fourth place. Before Interlagos, Nico's best result was a sixth place, which he scored three times this year - in Spain, Italy and Belgium 2007.

• Rubens Barrichello has finished his 15th season in Formula One, the first without scoring points. He retired for the eleventh time in his home race.

• Mark Webber posted another retirement in Brazil. The last time he was classified was in 2003 - although even then he had crashed out of the race.

• For the first time in eleven seasons, Ralf Schumacher didn't score any podium finish;

• Heikki Kovalainen posted his first retirement of the season, missing the opportunity to be classified in all the races of the season;

• 194th race start for Giancarlo Fisichella puts him on the tenth spot among the all-time starters, tied with the late Michele Alboreto;

• For the first time since 2002, the winner of the Brazilian GP is also the world champion;

Grid positions vs wins

For the second time this season after France, the win came from the third spot on the grid. In all the other cases, the win came from pole (11 times) and from the second spot (4). Therefore, the winning grid spots this year were only the top three. The last time this happened was back in 1998.