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Raikkonen and Ferrari pull off upset to win championship
October 21st, 2007
Sao Paulo, Brazil - Kimi Raikkonen came from seven points back, jumping over both two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso and points leader Lewis Hamilton to win the 2007 Formula One drivers championship. He did it by capturing Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Carlos Pace. The No.6 Ferrari driver crossed the finish line 1.493 seconds ahead of teammate Felipe Massa.
The victory for Raikkonen, the man who replaced the legendary Michael Schumacher, was his series-leading sixth of the season and 15th of his F1 career. He is Ferrari's 15th World Champion and the first since 2004.
Hometown hero Massa brought the field to the green flag, but most eyes were keyed to the three-way battle for the drivers championship between rookie Hamilton, two-time defending champion Alonso and Ferrari's Raikkonen. The last time F1 had three man still alive for the title at the final event was in 1986 at Australia when Alain Prost beat out Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet.
Right from the drop of the green flag things worked against Hamilton. Massa led the field through the first turn, but Raikkonen slid around Hamilton. Then Alonso drew up beside Hamilton and took third place before they had completed three corners. Hamilton tried vainly to fight back, but ran wide and fell all the way to eighth place.
Was the rookie finally beginning to show his inexperience?
Hamilton regrouped and got one position back on the next lap slipping past Jarno Trulli for seventh.
Meanwhile, Massa and Raikkonen quickly moved away from Alonso building the lead to four seconds after a handful of laps. Hamilton was still working hard and took sixth place from Nick Heidfeld in turn one on lap seven.
Then disaster for Hamilton. He suddenly slowed on lap eight. Cars were flying past him as his McLaren sat idling. Finally the car got into gear and off he went, but he was now way down in 18th place more than 40 seconds behind the leaders.
Massa set fastest lap of the race on lap 11 to build his lead over Raikkonen to 1.8 seconds with Alonso nine seconds back.
Hamilton was making his way through the slower cars, but there were a lot of them and the climb was slow. By lap 15 Hamilton was only up to 12th place.
The first round of pit stops began on lap 20 with Robert Kubica and leader Massa. Raikkonen and Alonso a lap later but Hamilton stayed out having more fuel than the other championship contenders.
After 25 laps and the first pit stops, Massa's lead over Raikkonen was 3.4 seconds. The McLarens of Alonso and Hamilton were third and 13th, respectively. But the Ferraris were much faster and were almost 19 seconds ahead of Alonso.
Hamilton made his next stop with 35 laps to go. He cracked the top-10 on lap 39, but still 50 seconds behind the competition. At this points his goal would be fifth place locking out Raikkonen from winning the title yet hoping the Ferraris finish one-two. That would still give him the championship.
Just twenty-five laps remaining in the 2007 season and Raikkonen was in the "drivers seat" assuming the team would give the order to Massa to let him pass. The two Ferraris were more than 30 seconds ahead of Alonso and Hamilton was only up to eighth place.
Raikkonen was closing on Massa, the gap was just 1.5 seconds on lap 48. Another lap and he chopped off some more time. Massa pitted on lap 50 and Raikkonen now had clean air.
Could he build up enough of a gap to pit and keep the lead?
Raikkonen pitted on lap 53 after building the lead to 20.1 seconds and when he came out, he was still the race leader and in line for his first World Championship.
So it was up to Hamilton. He would have to finish in fifth or the title would get away from both Hamilton and McLaren. Hamilton had to make one more stop to fuel to the finish and it left him with an almost impossible task.
Hamilton set a new fastest lap of the race on lap 58 (1:12.506), he was certainly giving it his all. But he had three cars and more than 20 seconds to make up on Trulli, Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg if he was to hold on to the championship.
Trulli had to pit for fuel and Hamilton inherited seventh place. Two positions to go but just six laps remaining. But that was as far as the Englishman got.
Meanwhile, Raikkonen made no mistakes all day and won the first World Championship of his career. Raikkonen ended the season with 110 points, one better than Alonso (109) and Hamilton (109).
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