On the Edge

In the 1990 Tom Cruise movie Days of Thunder, Robert Duvall's character Harry Hogge quips about being on the edge of out of control. It's pure Hollywood, but it's also the most apt description for the 95 minutes of pressure, adrenaline, anxiety, dismay and - finally - elation that clinched Lewis Hamilton's first world drivers' championship title at Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.

In the two weeks following China, the Brazilian race had been billed as a mouthwatering grand finale to a thrillingly close season. In terms of exciting competition, that is often the kiss of death for a major sporting event. Football World Cup finals, in particular, invariably promise enterprising and attacking football from the two best teams in the world - only to settle into the familiar pattern of dour defence, cautious control and risk-free play when the action begins.

McLaren offered no excuse for their defensive approach in preparation for Interlagos, nor should they have. For the second year in a row, the drivers' championship was theirs to win or lose at the final race. After the disastrous failure of 2007, the Woking outfit clearly had their fill of the unexpected and would settle happily for the most uneventful and predictable of races - as long as Hamilton finished fifth or higher to clinch the title.

From replacing every part that the regulations allow on Hamilton's car, to race distance runs with duplicate engines on the test bench, to analysing every possible strategic combination of fuel load, tyres, traffic and race order, they approached the weekend with the level of thoroughness that few other teams can muster. Yet, even with such exhaustive preparation and planning, the race threatened to slip inexorably from their grasp and direct control.

It started with Hamilton's disappointing qualifying performance on Saturday. Although pole position was always unlikely given Felipe Massa's superb qualifying record at his home circuit, Hamilton would not have felt comfortable marooned on the outside of the second row, especially with ex-teammate and nemesis Fernando Alonso directly behind him.

The brief cloudburst just before the scheduled start, causing the teams to hurriedly switch from grooved dry tyres to intermediates, provided another unsettling omen that the fates weren't going to allow McLaren and Hamilton to triumph without throwing up a few obstacles.

To their credit, the team had the self-belief and discipline to stick with the plan. And, for all but the final few laps, it worked to perfection. If McLaren were going to lose this one, it wouldn't be from indecision, panic or needless risks.

The race gave the impression, at times, that Hamilton had tightened up and was battling to cope with the pressure. Instead, he was simply racing against his instincts - and getting the job done despite it.

For the first nine laps, he looked in command of his destiny. In fourth position and comfortably able to hold off Sebastian Vettel's Toro Rosso behind, he was one place ahead of where he needed to be.

On another day, Hamilton's racing instinct may have seen him setting off in hot pursuit of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari ahead. But putting himself in close proximity of his arch-rival's teammate was a risk that Hamilton never needed to take.

With the track drying progressively, he then lost three positions by being among the last to pit for grooved dry tyres. Again, it was a sensible decision that avoided the urge to gamble or panic.

Lewis Hamilton leaves the pits on dry tires behind Jarno Trulli © XPB

Early on, in the greasy conditions at Turns 2 and 3, Hamilton (and several others) were suffering similarly precarious twitches almost every lap. Switching to dry tyres early under those conditions would, again, have been an unnecessary gamble.

It took him just six laps after the first stop to recover to fifth place and put the plan back on track. That included a pass on Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella that was both patient in the setting up and decisive in execution. If Hamilton was feeling the pinch, he wasn't showing it.

For the next 50 laps, the championship leader stayed calm, restrained and totally in control. Then, just as it seemed that conditions had granted McLaren the processional race they sought, the rain provided the final roll of the roulette wheel in the 2008 season.

It's an understatement to say that late afternoon rain hasn't been kind to Hamilton during the second half of 2008. At Spa, the shower over the final few laps brought about a sequence of events that resulted in his demotion from an initial victory to an eventual third. From the same shower, Felipe Massa gleefully snaffled a four-point gift and the win from a race position that had never looked better than third all afternoon.

McLaren may have considered almost every scenario up front. The joker in the strategy was that late sprinkling, coupled with Timo Glock's decision to brave the worsening conditions on dry tyres.

It's the type of wild card that can frustrate any front runner. Felipe Massa felt the sting of it in Germany where he was denied second place by Renault's Nelsinho Piquet adopting an off-the-wall single stop strategy. This time, crucially, it was Hamilton who was blindsided by a midfielder gambling on the unconventional.

With Glock seemingly out of reach ahead, Vettel's pass on Hamilton three laps from the finish should have sent the McLaren out of the window. It should have been the moment when 'on the edge' tipped into 'out of control'.

With apparently nothing to lose, it was surely only a matter of time before Hamilton reverted to type and tried a suicidal lunge up the inside of the Toro Rosso.

If McLaren's GPS tracking of the Toyota had indeed calculated that Hamilton would catch the struggling Glock on the last lap, and if he consciously suppressed the urge to attack Vettel in the faith that it was wiser to bide his time and wait for Glock, then his last-gasp pass must rate as one of the coolest and most calculating triumphs in the history of Formula One strategy. Not even Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher were able to cut it so fine.

Felipe Massa in the post race press conference © XPB

Trundling around cautiously to an eventual fifth place might not have been how Hamilton (or any other hyper-competitive racer) would have wished to win his first championship. But - especially after 2007 - his name on the trophy is the only validation he needs that the Alain Prost-like approach was the correct decision at Interlagos.

By contrast, Massa did finish the season the way that any champion would like to, with an emphatic home win from lights to flag. But that was his only consolation. It was the season's most cruel twist that, for a few seconds after taking the chequered flag, Massa thought that he had done enough for the title. His family, celebrating wildly in the Ferrari pits, certainly thought so.

When the truth dawned and the tears flowed, it was notable that Massa's first reaction over the radio was to thank the team. It was a selfless and gracious display of sportsmanship that continued through his podium acknowledgement of the fans into his "that's racing, and I'll learn from it" conclusion in the post-race press conference.

Kudos and commiserations won't fill Felipe Massa's trophy cabinet, but he won't be short of new fans in 2009.

Hamilton may have lifted the title, but both drivers came away with massive gains from the season-long battle. Massa entered 2008 as a mercurial outsider, deemed capable of dominating on favoured tracks but lacking the consistency to sustain a credible championship charge when the pressure mounted. If Brazil didn't complete the dispelling of that perceived shortcoming, then nothing will.

Hamilton, for his part, came into the season as the aggressive young gun, all Senna and no Prost. As recently as two races ago at Fuji, he was still displaying the impetuous streak that was his undoing in 2007. For him, too, Brazil proved to be a significant developmental step towards becoming a complete driver.

Both Hamilton and Massa will head into the 2009 campaign as better and stronger drivers, and they will need every ounce of it. If Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Robert Kubica, Sebastian Vettel and others have any say in the matter, Hamilton and Massa won't get things all their own way again next season.