The Complete 2008 Brazilian GP Review

For three successive years now, Formula One has served up incredibly dramatic title battles where the advantage swung wildly between the contenders and culminated in heart-stopping Interlagos deciders.

But not even 2006's often controversial Fernando Alonso versus Michael Schumacher contest or last year's fractious three-way shoot-out came close to the extraordinary and painfully tense finale that saw Lewis Hamilton become the 2008 F1 world champion and the series' youngest-ever title-winner.

This year had seen more than enough incident already, but the denouement in Brazil compressed a season's worth of twists and turns into an astonishing final four laps amid ever increasing rainfall.

It ended amid unforgettable scenes with the McLaren and Ferrari teams both celebrating wildly in the pit lane thinking their respective drivers were the world champion, before the disappointing truth gradually dawned on Ferrari, while Hamilton and Felipe Massa themselves crossed the line with no idea which of them had emerged as champion.

Then as the rain poured down, the usually eloquent Hamilton simply could not find the words to express the enormity of what had just happened as the world's press thronged around him, while Massa looked more downcast than any dominant home GP winner deserves to.

The championship result should have been a foregone conclusion given Hamilton's points lead, but both the Briton and his McLaren team have gained a reputation for making life difficult for themselves - and they lived up to it at Interlagos.

Having been castigated for taking too many risks in Japan, this time it looked like McLaren had gone too far the other way, as Hamilton's conservative race left him with little margin should any misfortune cost him positions.

"We came here so focused and tried not to make mistakes," said team boss Ron Dennis. "We could have pushed much harder, we were turning the engine down, saving fuel, trying to make sure that the tyres lasted and that we could push if we had to. All the time that it wasn't raining we could pretty much do all that we wanted."

But then it did rain, and everything so very nearly fell apart for McLaren, whose belief that the precipitation would increase and slick-shod Timo Glock would have to slow eventually proved absolutely correct - but looked misguided until the last 30 seconds of the race.

Had Hamilton not got past the Toyota at the last corner, the media reaction would surely have been vicious. The young Briton's achievements in his first two F1 seasons have been remarkable, yet the perception remained that he couldn't afford to lose another title at the last gasp - even though he could have a dozen or more chances to win the championship in the rest of his career.

Now he has the first title in the bag, and McLaren have their first crown since 1999, the question will not be whether Hamilton has the composure to be champion, but just how many championships he can notch up.

Despite winning fewer races than Massa, Hamilton is clearly a worthy champion - his epic wins in Monaco, Britain and Germany in particular proving that while he is certainly not flawless, he is probably the most talented driver on the grid.

But Massa also deserves huge credit for what has been a breakthrough season. Admittedly there were some embarrassing errors (solo spins in the opening two races made for a very poor start to 2008, and the less said about Silverstone, the better), few believe he was a deserving Spa winner, and his insistence at Fuji that Sebastien Bourdais and Hamilton's penalties were justified while his was a travesty was extremely hard to swallow.

However, he has also shown phenomenal raw speed this year, seen off a very illustrious teammate in Kimi Raikkonen, and drove a championship-calibre race in Brazil, where he dealt sublimely with the pressure and the ever-changing weather, then showed enormous dignity in defeat. F1 has had to reassess Massa in 2008, and will never underestimate him again.

"We need to congratulate Lewis, because he did a great championship," said Massa.

"He scored more points than us, so he deserved to be the champion.

"I know how to lose, I know how to win. This is another day of my life where I'm going to learn a lot, and hopefully we will come back here and win the title."

"I think we did everything perfectly today, and unfortunately it was not enough. I'm very proud and I'm leaving the track with my head completely up because I think we did everything we could."

Practice

Practice one - Friday am

Felipe Massa spent most of the cold and drizzly first practice session chasing Lewis Hamilton's 1:12.495 benchmark in vain. The Ferrari driver kept edging closer and closer, improving his own time on five occasions but still remaining tantalising thousandths of a second away from his rival.

But then with his last lap of the session, Massa produced a 1:12.305 to finally beat Hamilton, while his teammate Kimi Raikkonen closed to within 0.012 seconds of the McLaren after an earlier spin.

"It might only be Friday, but it's important to get off to a good start on such an important weekend," said the satisfied Massa.

Hamilton was also buoyant, though.

"Our car was blindingly quick this morning despite the cold weather," maintained the championship leader.

Robert Kubica, Heikki Kovalainen and Fernando Alonso completed a surprise-free top six.

Practice two - Friday pm

The light showers became more of an irritant in the afternoon, with many drivers finding it tough to compare tyres on an ever-changing track that was just slippery enough to be annoying on dry tyres, but nowhere near damp enough for wets.

This time Massa was the man to beat throughout, swapping the top spot with Jarno Trulli's Toyota a few times before moving clear of the field.

He looked certain to remain there until Alonso switched to soft tyres for a last gasp qualifying simulation and vaulted from 18th to first.

"Ten minutes before the end of the second session, I was 18th. 30 seconds before the end of the session, I was first," said the Spaniard. "Our true position is probably somewhere between those two extremes."

Despite a spin and the after-effects of 'flu, Trulli hung on to third behind Massa, followed by Raikkonen and Mark Webber, who also had an off-track excursion in the conditions, as did Timo Glock and Sebastien Bourdais (several times, in the latter's case, and always at the Senna S).

McLaren were nowhere near the front-runners this time, with Hamilton repeatedly locking his brakes on the way to ninth, and Kovalainen only 15th. But they insisted there was nothing to be concerned about.

"We suspect that some teams may have dropped their fuel loads, but we didn't," said team boss Ron Dennis. "Instead we adhered to a disciplined programme, all the while assessing our raceable options."

"We were focussing on our long runs and trying to understand the tyres," Hamilton added. "This morning we had great pace and I am quite confident we can challenge for at least a podium."

Practice three - Saturday am

Final practice began as a repeat of practice one - with Hamilton edging ahead of Massa as the title contenders dominated - and ended as a replay of practice two, as Alonso again appeared out of nowhere and snatched the fastest time.

The Renault beat Hamilton to the top spot by 0.071 seconds, with Kovalainen giving McLaren plenty to smile about by pushing Massa down to fourth at the end, while Raikkonen only managed 12th.

After an anonymous Friday, Toro Rosso showed better form as Sebastian Vettel and Bourdais took fifth and seventh, split by Nick Heidfeld's BMW, and just ahead of Webber.

Qualifying

Part one

Usually in Q1 the battle to avoid being 16th gets far more attention than the fight to be first, but with a title at stake today, Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa's squabble over the top spot in first qualifying was significant.

Not that the session was very conclusive - on paper it saw a Ferrari one-two with third-placed Hamilton 0.4 seconds slower than pace-setter Massa, but the Brazilian had required two attempts to get down to his 1:11.830, whereas Hamilton only made a single run, and had been 0.3 seconds quicker than Massa after their first shots.

Back where actual grid positions were being decided, the Red Bull duo, Robert Kubica and Sebastien Bourdais all had a few scares before proceeding to Q2, and ultimately the only shock was Nico Rosberg's 18th place - two positions behind his Williams teammate Kazuki Nakajima.

"I knew our car is still slow, so it's the same here this weekend," said Rosberg, "but still I struggled more than I expected."

They were split by Honda's Jenson Button, but the Briton's under-pressure teammate Rubens Barrichello made it through to Q2 in what may yet be his final Formula One qualifying session.

The Force Indias assumed their customary back row spots, Giancarlo Fisichella slightly faster than Adrian Sutil.

Part two

Just 0.019 seconds separated Hamilton and Massa in Q2, as this time both settled for a single flying lap. While the McLaren was ahead this time, Massa said his lap had been spoiled by an error at the Descida do Lago. Meanwhile, quick laps from Heikki Kovalainen and the surprising Sebastian Vettel pushed the title rivals down to third and fourth.

Further back, the segment's main shock was provided by Robert Kubica. Prior to China, he had only twice missed Q3 in his whole career, but at Interlagos he notched up his second consecutive Q2 elimination, managing only 13th - to his complete confusion.

"This is really the worst qualifying I have ever done and it is a surprise," said the Pole.

"I don't think it is coming from the tyres, but I don't know where it is coming from. I can just say that the grip is very poor. It is surprising me after so many races where everything was working, two races in a row I am struggling to have any grip from the car."

He would start between the two Red Bulls, with David Coulthard ending his last F1 qualifying session two places behind teammate Mark Webber in 14th.

"It was not lost on me the fact that it's the last time I will run a grand prix car on low fuel against the clock and it really mattered," said Coulthard.

"I was really nervous before the session like I'd never been before, because I thought 'shit I don't want to go out in the first session!'"

The eliminated quintet was book-ended by home drivers, as Barrichello took 15th, and Nelson Piquet was yet again squeezed out of Q3 by a tiny margin. This time it was Bourdais whose late improvement pushed the Renault driver down to 11th, 0.03 seconds outside the top ten.

"The car was working well, I was comfortable and I pushed hard, but that wasn't enough," Piquet shrugged.

Part three

The title rivals may have been evenly-matched in Q2, but when the crucial pole shoot-out started, Massa was in a league of his own.

His 1:12.453 first lap immediately put him half a second clear of the field, while Hamilton's untidy 1:13.252 effort was only good enough for sixth place - behind Jarno Trulli, Kimi Raikkonen, Kovalainen and Vettel.

Hamilton made a better job of his second attempt, but even then he only reached 1:12.830, while Massa trimmed a little more time from his benchmark in the final sector and claimed his third consecutive home pole with a 1:12.368 - to the vocal delight of the Brazilian fans.

"It's so nice to be here and taking the third pole position in a row here in Brazil in front of these fantastic people, who are 100 per cent emotional about their motor racing," said Massa.

"I was thinking that maybe the first try was enough to be on pole but you don't see if everybody had a clean lap and if people can improve on the second try. To be honest I didn't want to risk it because if you back off and you are not on pole it is really stupid."

Hamilton had briefly joined Massa on the provisional front row, only for Trulli and Raikkonen to sneak ahead of him with their final runs - the second Ferrari beating the McLaren by just 0.005 seconds.

After topping Q2, Kovalainen slipped back to fifth, and was fairly sure he knew why.

"I don't think it's just that we've suddenly lost a bit of pace - I think the strategies are probably a bit different," said the Finn.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis was more emphatic.

"The guys at the front are on three-stop strategies - simple as that," he said. "It's just fuel load. You don't have the level of competitiveness that we had in practice and Q1 and Q2 and then suddenly lose it."

But Massa's engineer Rob Smedley insisted his driver's pole lap was genuine.

"Every now and again you see him do these stunning laps, fantastic laps, and today he's done one," he said. "The fuel load is quite normal. We even discussed quite a lot whether we were a little bit heavy."

The championship leader himself was sanguine about his second row start.

"I just want to keep my nose clean," said Hamilton. "These guys in front of me can do whatever they want. It will be great if I can keep my position, if we can make another step forward, then great."

Almost overlooked amid the title showdown excitement, Trulli recovered from 'flu earlier in the week to claim his first front row start since Magny-Cours 2005, and Toyota's first since Suzuka that year.

"I thought I was not going to make it for Friday as on Thursday I was feeling really bad," he said.

"I know that there are people fighting for the title, but to be honest, I race for myself and I race for my team. With all my experience, I know that I don't have to take too many risks.

"You can bet that if I am wheel-to-wheel into the first corner and I am on the inside line, I won't give up, but for sure if I am behind, I won't try a crazy attack."

Further back, Fernando Alonso was only sixth despite his practice speed, but wasn't surprised by the result.

"The two Ferraris and the two McLarens are a little bit too quick and also Toyota has been better than us, so I think sixth is a fair position," he said.

Toro Rosso got both cars into the top ten again, with Vettel seventh and Sebastien Bourdais ninth - the latter a second slower than his teammate but delighted with his lap, suggesting a heavier fuel load.

Timo Glock also appeared to be well laden with fuel as he took 10th, 1.5 seconds adrift of his Toyota teammate Trulli.

Qualifying results

Pos  Driver        Team                 Q1        Q2        Q3       Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              1:11.830  1:11.875  1:12.368  17
 2.  Trulli        Toyota               1:12.226  1:12.107  1:12.737  15
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              1:12.083  1:11.950  1:12.825  19
 4.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     1:12.213  1:11.856  1:12.830  14
 5.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     1:12.366  1:11.768  1:12.917  17
 6.  Alonso        Renault              1:12.214  1:12.090  1:12.967  18
 7.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:12.390  1:11.845  1:13.082  20
 8.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           1:12.371  1:12.026  1:13.297  18
 9.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1:12.498  1:12.075  1:14.105  16
10.  Glock         Toyota               1:12.223  1:11.909  1:14.230  24
11.  Piquet        Renault              1:12.348  1:12.137            13
12.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     1:12.409  1:12.289            13
13.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           1:12.381  1:12.300            13
14.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     1:12.690  1:12.717            16
15.  Barrichello   Honda                1:12.548  1:13.139            14
16.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      1:12.800                       9
17.  Button        Honda                1:12.810                       9
18.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      1:13.002                       8
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  1:13.426                       9
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  1:13.508                       9

The Race

The first hint that this might be a rather crazy afternoon came with three minutes to go before the start. Most teams had expected rain to feature, but no-one was prepared for the massive downpour that appeared out of an apparently clear sky as the mechanics prepared to clear the grid.

With no time to change to wet tyres, the start was delayed by ten minutes, by which time the sun was back out and much of the circuit was dry, although the pits straight and first corners remained sodden.

The front-runners avoided trouble at the start, with Felipe Massa leading Jarno Trulli, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton through the treacherous Senna S in grid order.

Behind them, Sebastian Vettel attacked Heikki Kovalainen for fifth, and as the Toro Rosso squeezed the McLaren to the inside on the run down the back straight, Fernando Alonso swept around the outside at the Descida do Lago and got between them.

Not everyone had navigated the Senna S so smoothly, and sadly it was the retiring David Coulthard who came off worst, as he was tapped into a spin by Nico Rosberg and collected the second Williams of Kazuki Nakajima, leaving the Red Bull with broken suspension and the Williams somewhat battered, although it continued. It was an inappropriate way for Coulthard to depart the F1 fray.

"I wanted to get to the chequered flag and I was going to do some doughnuts, which normally you'd get fined for," said the Scot.

"Unfortunately it didn't work out, but I still can't complain because I've had a good career."

Nelson Piquet was also out at the start, snapping into a spin at the Sol curve.

The safety car came out for three laps while the stricken cars were recovered, and by the restart - which saw Kovalainen pass Alonso for a few moments before running wide - it was clear that dry tyres would soon be required.

Robert Kubica had planned to start on slicks, but was dissuaded by the conditions on the formation lap so pitted for intermediates and took the start from the pit lane. Giancarlo Fisichella then made the switch during the full course yellow, and although it took a few laps to pay off, the Force India soon started to match the pack's times.

Midfielders started to follow Fisichella's example from lap seven, with Alonso and Vettel becoming the first front-runners to stop on lap nine.

Massa and Kovalainen came in next time around, the McLaren losing several seconds to a problematic tyre change, but Trulli, Raikkonen and Hamilton all waited until lap 11.

This proved to be a bit too cautious. While Massa maintained his lead, Vettel and Alonso leapt up to a close second and third, ahead of Raikkonen, who had jumped past Trulli in the pits.

Trulli and Hamilton rejoined back in sixth and seventh, behind the impressive Fisichella, whose strategy paid off handsomely as the rest of the field stopped, with Timo Glock and Sebastien Bourdais tucked up behind them all, while Kovalainen had tumbled to 12th, behind slow starter Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber.

This wasn't ideal for Hamilton's title bid, but he was soon back where he needed to be. Trulli accounted for himself with an error at the Senna S, Fisichella's pace faded and he was passed at the same spot four laps later, and then Vettel fell back from second to sixth when he made his second pit stop on lap 27.

Whereas most of the field planned to pit just once more after taking dry tyres, Vettel stuck to a three-stop strategy, allowing him to hassle Massa for the lead until his second stop, while comfortably fending off the lurking Alonso. The German's pit visit appeared to take him out of contention with everyone else planning one less stop, but he would still have a big say in this race...

For a while, Massa had both Vettel and Alonso tucked up behind him, but in the middle of the race the Brazilian raised his pace and started charging away - opening up a seven-second advantage over Alonso before their final planned stops. The Renault was pitting two laps later, and the team hoped they might yet pull off another win, but Alonso was never quite convinced.

"I think Massa was a little bit too quick today and I was more concerned about the gap with Kimi and second place than the race victory, which I knew was impossible," he said.

Holding the gap to Raikkonen was proving fairly straightforward at this point. Struggling to get performance from his tyres, the outgoing world champion was 10 seconds behind Alonso at half-distance, and four seconds clear of the conservative Hamilton.

"It wasn't the best race ever," Raikkonen admitted.

But the Finn got on better with his final set of dry tyres and started charging towards Alonso and escaping from Hamilton, who went into the closing stages under pressure from Vettel - the German having flown towards the end of his middle stint and emerged from the pits right behind the McLaren.

Kovalainen fought back well after his costly stop, making it back up to sixth, just in front of Glock, with Trulli down to eighth and Fisichella now out of points contention having been badly delayed by clutch problems at his pit stops. Bourdais probably would have been a factor in the top eight at this point, had he not tumbled down the order after a brush with Trulli at the Senna S as both tried to attack Fisichella prior to the Force India's slump.

"Jarno decided to go for it, which was fine, except he outbraked himself and pushed me towards the grass and I lost six places," said Bourdais. "It's the second time in a row that Jarno has upset my race."

It looked like Massa's domination of the race would be in vain as the laps ticked away, for Hamilton appeared to have the measure of Vettel in their battle for fourth, and even if the Toro Rosso had got ahead, Kovalainen was in position to play rear-gunner for Hamilton and prevent him falling further than fifth.

There were some more astounding twists to come, though. With eight laps to go, spots of rain started falling again, and with the forecasts predicting much more to follow, the midfielders started pouring into the pits for intermediates or wets in the hope that - like at Spa - they would leap up the order as the rain increased.

But with so much at stake, the front-runners were taking no chances, and all the leaders came in for intermediates between laps 65 and 67. Despite being the last to stop, Massa still managed to extend his lead, with Alonso now under huge pressure from Raikkonen until Ferrari asked the Finn to hold station - knowing that any incident between the two former champions could have handed Hamilton another two positions.

Suddenly things weren't looking so safe for Hamilton. Toyota were the only team to gamble and stay out, and although Hamilton managed to rejoin ahead of Trulli, Glock had gone through to fourth - 10 seconds ahead. And it looked like Toyota had made the right choice, for the rain wasn't intensifying and Glock was pulling away.

Worse was to follow for McLaren. Vettel was still all over Hamilton, with Kubica behind both and desperate to un-lap himself. The BMW driver had driven a very muted race, spending most of it following Adrian Sutil at the tail of the field, but when the rain fell Kubica came alive and started matching the leaders' times. With three laps to go, he surged past both Vettel and Hamilton in the infield, and as he did so, the McLaren ran wide at Juncao and Vettel accelerated through to fifth.

"I don't know what happened, my tyres began to grain and I just slid wide," said Hamilton, while Vettel had no qualms about the move that looked set to decide the championship.

"I don't care at all," he said. "I was doing my own race and looking after myself. I didn't have a clue where I was after the stop."

With Hamilton confessing that he just wasn't fast enough to get back past Vettel, and Massa heading for a commanding victory, Ferrari prepared to celebrate a repeat of their eleventh hour 2007 championship success.

The Italian team, Massa's family and the tens of thousands of Brazilian fans erupted with delight as the local hero crossed the line to collect another home win, while Hamilton trailed Vettel forlornly going into the final corner.

But, remarkably, it wasn't over yet...

McLaren had informed Hamilton that it was Glock, not Vettel, who held the key to his title destiny, and that he would definitely catch the Toyota, but CEO Martin Whitmarsh admitted that doubts had started to creep in.

"We had the GPS and we could see Glock coming back towards us, we had the conviction that we were going to catch him," he said.

"But then you start to worry - is it raining as hard as you think it is, are you really going to catch him? Had we really got this wrong? We told Lewis 'don't worry about Vettel, Glock's on dries, you're going to find him on the last lap.'"

The rain had finally increased during the last lap and a half, and Glock suddenly began to flounder - losing 18 seconds to Vettel and Hamilton on the final lap. The McLaren caught the Toyota at Juncao, and as Glock scrabbled for now non-existent grip, Hamilton cruised past and back into fifth place. He was world champion after all.

"I was told he was just ahead. I didn't know how far, but I knew he was on slicks," said Hamilton. "I was just praying that I would be able to get close to him, and I couldn't believe it when I could see him on the exit of Turn 10.

"I thought my heart was going to explode. I think everyone else was the same. I don't know what would have happened if I had lost out on the last lap."

The incredible events of the race's final yards left Massa crestfallen, but he composed himself and handled his defeat with grace and dignity.

"It's a really emotional day for me because you get here and you've almost done everything perfectly, but then we saw Lewis passing Glock again and that's really mixed a lot of emotion," said Massa, who clinched the constructors' title for Ferrari but missed the drivers' crown by a single point.

"I'm very proud and I'm leaving the track with my head completely up because I think we did everything we could."

There was no denying that, and he had at least wrapped up Ferrari's eighth constructors' championship in ten years - not that it provided much consolation.

Away from the title fight, the changing conditions led to many other tales of delight and frustration amongst the other 18 drivers.

Alonso was thrilled to take another unexpected podium in second, ahead of the rather muted Raikkonen, while Vettel was even more ecstatic to leave Toro Rosso with a fourth place.

Lewis Hamilton celebrates winning the World Championship with McLaren in parc ferme © XPB

Glock, who hadn't realised he had become the championship 'kingmaker', was annoyed that his tyre gamble had failed to pay off, leaving him sixth ahead of Kovalainen and the equally disappointed Trulli.

After running as high as sixth thanks to a long middle stint, Webber ended the year with a frustrating ninth, ahead of Heidfeld, who didn't have the pace to recover from his poor start.

Kubica's last minute resurgence in the rain saw him tear through the midfield to take 11th, gaining four places in as many laps, with Rosberg his final victim.

The Hondas, Force Indias and Bourdais all chose to take extreme wet tyres rather than intermediates in the final shower, which proved to be the wrong choice. Jenson Button, Bourdais, Rubens Barrichello (who decided to pit again for intermediates) therefore trailed home in 13th to 15th places, with the Force Indias 16th and 18th, split by Nakajima's wounded Williams.

Given his fine early form, it was a shame that Fisichella ended up last on the results sheets, having lost nearly a minute at his two stops due to his clutch issue - although the Italian felt he had proved a point even though he was unable to score one.

"Despite the result it was an incredible start to the race and we can be pleased with the performance," he said.

Race results

71 laps; 305.909km;
Weather: Wet and dry.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Massa         Ferrari               (B)  1h34:11:435
 2.  Alonso        Renault               (B)  +    13.298
 3.  Raikkonen     Ferrari               (B)  +    16.235
 4.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +    38.011
 5.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    38.907
 6.  Glock         Toyota                (B)  +    44.368
 7.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes      (B)  +    55.074
 8.  Trulli        Toyota                (B)  +  1:08.433
 9.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault      (B)  +  1:19.666
10.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber            (B)  +     1 lap
11.  Kubica        BMW Sauber            (B)  +     1 lap
12.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota       (B)  +     1 lap
13.  Button        Honda                 (B)  +     1 lap
14.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari    (B)  +     1 lap
15.  Barrichello   Honda                 (B)  +     1 lap
16.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari   (B)  +    2 laps
17.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota       (B)  +    2 laps
18.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari   (B)  +    2 laps

Fastest lap: Massa, 1:13.376

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                      On lap
Piquet        Renault               (B)    1
Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault      (B)    1


World Championship standings, round 18:

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Hamilton      98        1.  Ferrari               172
 2.  Massa         97        2.  McLaren-Mercedes      151
 3.  Raikkonen     75        3.  BMW Sauber            135
 4.  Kubica        75        4.  Renault                80
 5.  Alonso        61        5.  Toyota                 56
 6.  Heidfeld      60        6.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari     39
 7.  Kovalainen    53        7.  Red Bull-Renault       29
 8.  Vettel        35        8.  Williams-Toyota        26
 9.  Trulli        31        9.  Honda                  14
10.  Glock         25
11.  Webber        21
12.  Piquet        19
13.  Rosberg       17
14.  Barrichello   11
15.  Nakajima       9
16.  Coulthard      8
17.  Bourdais       4
18.  Button         3

Team-by-Team

Fastest in opening practice, on pole by a huge margin, and comfortably victorious in a very difficult race, Massa still has to settle for second in the championship.

Teammate Raikkonen is never quite as quick, qualifying and finishing third having pressured Trulli early on and then chased Alonso for the rest of the afternoon.

An unhappy end to a largely excellent season for BMW. Heidfeld is relatively satisfied with eighth on the grid, but Kubica has the worst qualifying session of his career and takes a grip-less 13th.

With little to lose, the Pole tries to start on slicks, only to pit for intermediates at the end of the formation lap after deciding conditions are too wet. He spends most of the race stuck behind Sutil, before bursting into life when it rains at the end, charging to 11th.

Heidfeld makes a slow start and then comes off second best in a race-long battle with Webber, finishing 10th.

Alonso flies in practice, snatching the top spot in the second and third sessions with last minute flying laps, but only takes sixth on the grid.

He loses out to Vettel at the start of the race, but times his switch to slicks perfectly and emerges in third. He gains another spot when Vettel pits, and although he can't quite match Massa, he manages to fend off Raikkonen for second.

Piquet misses Q3 by a tiny margin yet again and starts 11th, before crashing out at the first corner.

Despite strong practice times, Nakajima and Rosberg fall to 16th and 18th in qualifying, to the latter's surprise.

Rosberg helps Coulthard into a spin at the first corner, and the Red Bull spears Nakajima's Williams as it rotates. While Rosberg goes on to finish 12th, losing out to Kubica late on, Nakajima limps to 17th in his battered car.

Coulthard gains permission to run a Wings for Life charity livery in his final race, and is welcomed to the Red Bull garage by a piper prior to the start, which he takes from 14th. But his last F1 appearance is very brief, as he tangles with the two Williams at the first corner and has to retire.

Webber is in the top ten throughout practice, but only 12th on the grid. He hasn't got the pace to make it into the points, and finishes ninth, winning a battle with Heidfeld.

Trulli fears a severe illness might sideline him for part of the weekend, but he regains enough strength to participate in practice and take third on Friday afternoon.

He goes on to take a shock second on the grid, with the heavier Glock in 10th.

Trulli holds second at the start, but stays on intermediates too long and then loses pace on slicks, with a half-spin at the Senna S costing him several positions. He stays on dry tyres at the end but can only manage eighth.

Glock has a stronger race and is running seventh until deciding not to take intermediates in the final shower. This brings him up to fourth, but he slumps back to sixth at the last corner as the rain intensifies.

Vettel and Bourdais start seventh and ninth, with the German charging forward in the wet and passing Alonso and Kovalainen on the opening lap.

A well-timed change to dry tyres sees him appear in second place and challenging Massa for the lead, albeit with one extra stop to make on what is intended to be a three-stop strategy.

By the time the scheduled stops are complete, Vettel is fifth, right behind Hamilton. Both fall behind Glock when the Toyota driver gambles on dry tyres as the rain returns, with Vettel then passing Hamilton with three laps to go. He finally takes fourth from the fading Glock at the last corner.

Bourdais is battling for seventh when shoved off the road at the Senna S by Trulli, dropping him to 13th. He struggles to recover, and slips to 14th with an errant switch to extreme wets at the end.

Barrichello, racing in former mentor Ingo Hoffman's helmet colours for his home race, takes 15th on the grid, two places ahead of Button.

A quiet race on a two-stop strategy sees Barrichello on course to fend off Rosberg and Bourdais for 11th, with three-stopper Button back in 14th, until they change to extreme wets in the late rain. That costs them a lot of pace, leaving Button 13th, with the frustrated Barrichello coming back in for intermediates and falling to 15th.

Fisichella and Sutil start at the back like usual, but the Italian's decision to pit for slicks under the safety car sees him leap to fifth as everyone else pits.

He doesn't quite have the pace to stay up there, but it's a clutch fault that proves most costly, delaying him by 20-30 seconds at each stop. Choosing extreme wets at the end doesn't help and he finishes 18th, two places behind Sutil, who also went for extremes in the final laps. The German fended off Kubica for most of the race, but is passed by the BMW when he has to pull over for Hamilton as he rejoins following his second stop.

Hamilton qualifies a conservative fourth and runs there for most of the race, resisting pressure from Vettel after the last scheduled stops.

It all goes wrong in the late rain, as tyre gambler Glock gets ahead and Hamilton is overtaken by Vettel. But when Glock slows as the track gets too wet for his dry tyres, Hamilton slips back up to fifth place and claims his first title.

Kovalainen starts fifth, loses out to Vettel and Alonso on lap one, and the falls to 12th with a slow pit stop. He recovers to seventh.

Lap-by-Lap

Pre-race: Torrential rain begins to fall four minutes before the scheduled start. Formation lap delayed by 10 minutes. Kubica attempts to go to the grid on dry tyres but pits at the end of the final warm-up lap.

Lap 1: From his third consecutive Interlagos pole, Felipe Massa leads away cleanly from Jarno Trulli, Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton. Heikki Kovalainen drops from fifth to seventh, behind Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.

The field approaches the first turn © LAT

Sebastien Bourdais lies eighth ahead of Timo Glock, Mark Webber, the fast-starting Rubens Barrichello and Nick Heidfeld.

Nico Rosberg taps David Coulthard into a spin at Turn Two and the Scot retires from both the race and Formula One. His wayward car knocks Kazuki Nakajima into a spin but the Japanese driver continues.

Rosberg presses on in 13th ahead of Jenson Button, Adrian Sutil, Giancarlo Fisichella, Nakajima and Kubica. Nelson Piquet crashes at Turn Three. Safety Car deployed.

Lap 2: Fisichella pits for dries.

Lap 5: Restart. Massa leads Trulli by 0.9 seconds. Hamilton is fourth, 2.1 seconds behind the leader and 0.5 seconds clear of Vettel.

Lap 6: Massa pulls 1.8 seconds clear. Heidfeld passes Barrichello for 11th.

Lap 7: Rosberg and Button are in for dries. Button passes Rosberg in the pit exit lane.

Lap 8: Bourdais, Glock, Sutil and Nakajima change tyres.

Lap 9: Vettel, Alonso, Webber and Barrichello pit.

Lap 10: Massa, Kovalainen and Kubica pit. Glock passes Bourdais.

Lap 11: Trulli, Raikkonen and Hamilton pit.

Lap 12: Massa leads Vettel, Alonso, Raikkonen, Fisichella, Trulli, Hamilton, Glock, Bourdais, Heidfeld, Webber, Kovalainen, Barrichello, Button, Rosberg, Sutil, Kubica and Nakajima.

Lap 13: Hamilton passes Trulli for sixth at Turn One. The Italian then loses time when he has a slide at the bottom of the hill. He drops to ninth.

Lap 17: Fastest lap to Alonso, 1:15.416.

Kimi Raikkonen ran a quiet but strategic race © LAT

Lap 18: Hamilton passes Fisichella. He's now fifth. Vettel posts a 1:15.160 and trails Massa by 0.9 seconds.

Lap 19: Massa laps in 1:14.772. He's 1.0 seconds clear. Kovalainen passes Webber.

Lap 21: Vettel laps in 1:14.565 to reduce Massa's lead to 0.6 seconds. Trulli nudges Bourdais off the track at Turn One. The Frenchman drops to 13th. Glock passes Fisichella.

Lap 22: Masses extends the gap to 0.8 seconds.

Lap 23: Fastest lap to Massa: 1:14.541.

Lap 24: Massa laps in 1:14.406 but Vettel almost matches him. The gap is 0.9 seconds.

Lap 25: Vettel laps in 1:14.214.

Lap 26: Massa hits back: 1:14.161. He leads by 1.0 seconds.

Lap 27: Vettel pits and drops to sixth. Kovalainen passes Trulli and Fisichella to move up to seventh.

Lap 28: Massa leads Alonso by 4.2 seconds.

Lap 31: Fastest lap to Hamilton: 1:14.159.

Lap 32: Glock goes faster: 1:14.057.

Lap 33: Button pits.

Nick Heidfeld repeated his Belgian Grand Prix gamble by being the first to pit for intermediates © XPB

Lap 34: Massa laps in 1:13.735 and leads by 5.0 seconds.

Lap 35: Approaching half-distance, Massa leads by 5.8 seconds.

Lap 36: Massa posts a 1:13.736. His lead extends to 6.5 seconds. Glock pits.

Lap 38: Massa pits, as do Fisichella and Bourdais. Alonso leads.

Lap 40: Alonso and Hamilton pit, as does Barrichello.

Lap 41: Raikkonen leads by 12.5 seconds from Massa, Vettel, Alonso, Kovalainen and Hamilton. Rosberg pits.

Lap 42: Kovalainen and Heidfeld pit.

Lap 43: Raikkonen pits, Massa leads. Trulli pits, too. Button passes Barrichello.

Lap 44: Sutil pits.

Lap 45: Massa leads Vettel, Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton and Webber.

Lap 46: Kubica pits.

Lap 48: Webber pits. Fisichella moves over for blue flags and loses a place to Kubica.

Lap 51: Vettel pits, as does the lapped Nakajima.

Lap 56: Massa leads by 11.1 seconds. Button pits.

Lap 62: Status quo at the front. Nakajima pits.

Lap 63: It starts to rain. Fisichella pits.

Fernando Alonso, Felipe Massa, and Kimi Raikkonen on the podium © XPB

Lap 64: Heidfeld, Barrichello, Rosberg, Bourdais, Kubica and Sutil pit.

Lap 65: Kovalainen and Button pit.

Lap 66: Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton and Vettel pit.

Lap 67: Massa pits. He rejoins in the lead from Alonso, Raikkonen, Glock (still on dries), Hamilton and Vettel.

Lap 69: Vettel passes Hamilton. The Englishman drops to sixth. Massa now has the edge in the title race.

Lap 71: Massa wins by 13.2 seconds from Alonso and Raikkonen. Glock slows in the increasing rain. Vettel and Hamilton pass the German and Hamilton recovers the point he needs to become the sport's youngest champion. Glock, Kovalainen and Trulli complete the top eight.