An emotional Lewis Hamilton admitted he was virtually lost for words and did not know he had succeeded when he became the youngest man to win the Formula One drivers' world championship. The 23-year-old Englishman, needing a top five finish to be champion, only seized fifth place for McLaren Mercedes again, after losing it, on the final lap of a tense, dramatic and rain-hit Brazilian Grand Prix won by his title rival and local hero Felipe Massa of Ferrari. As Massa triumphed and then celebrated, briefly, Hamilton caught and passed German Timo Glock of Toyota to turn his day from despair to joy after earlier appearing to have controlled his own race by cruising towards fourth or fifth place.
A late shower of rain then created chaos and saw Hamilton change tyres and fall back to sixth before he made his final desperate charge to recover and claim fifth. But as he said afterwards Hamilton was not even sure that he had won the title when he finally crossed the line in teeming rain and near-darkness in front of 100,000 spectators at the Interlagos circuit. Massa who finished the season in style with a dazzling win in front of his home crowd ended up in tears as he stood atop the victors' podium. He had won six races this season to Hamilton's five but missed the championship 98 points to 97. Driving with great control and judgement, Hamilton avoided the early problems that wrecked his bid to become the first rookie champion last year as he steered his McLaren Mercedes to glory after a tense contest and an extraordinary final lap. Only on that final lap did Hamilton regain a place when Glock lost 18 seconds in his Toyota and slipped behind Hamilton. As well as being the youngest champion, Hamilton also became the first black Formula One title holder on a stirring afternoon in front of an impassioned 100,000 crowd at the Interlagos circuit.
The race, run in unpredictable wet and dry conditions, was won comprehensively by his nearest rival and local hero Massa. Hamilton allowed Massa in his Ferrari to run away at the front and claim his sixth win this year and the 11th victory of his career. Massa was followed home by two times champion Fernando Alonso of Renault and third placed Ferrari team mate and outgoing champion Kimi Raikkonen. German youngster Sebastien Vettel was fourth for Toro Rosso after passing Hamilton in the final laps and Hamilton fifth, just, after his late recovery when Glock slowed down and finished sixth. Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Heikki Kovalainen of Finland came home seventh. Hamilton's triumph made him first Briton to take the world title since Damon Hill in 1996 and the first McLaren champion since Finn Mika Hakkinen in 1999. He is Britain 's ninth champion. The previous youngest champion was Alonso who was 24 years, one month and 27 days old when he won the title in 2005. Hamilton was 23 years, nine months and 26 days old as he drove to glory on Sunday.
Massa had been hoping to be the first Brazilian champion since Ayrton Senna in 1991.
While Hamilton and Massa will be back next season for Scot David Coulthard this was the last race before retirement but the veteran winner of 13 grand prix did not make it to the first bend after slipping off when his Red Bull was hit by Nico Rosberg's Williams. [End of report]
What a great season of Formula 1 it has been, that if you are supporting Hamilton or McLaren of course. The fact that the battle for the driver's championship had to go all the way to the final race of the season shows what a great and competitive season it has been in particular for both Ferrari and McLaren as well as their drivers. Both teams had been a close rival to each other since the last few seasons but I think this is probably the closest they have ever been in recent memory. I actually managed to catch the race yesterday but I didnt managed to watch the entire race because I fell asleep when there was about 20 or so lap to go. It started at 1 am, so you can understand how I managed to fell asleep. Anyway, I was hoping to see some crazy incidents which could affect the driver's championship race but nothing of that sort happened when I was still watching it. But it is just my bad luck that I missed the best part of the race on the last lap where Hamilton somehow managed to pass Timo Glock who was in the fifth position and to end the race in that position. As we all know, that was all Hamilton needed to win the driver's championship, irregardless of whether Massa finished first or last. I do feel sorry for Massa in a way because he was already celebrating as though he had won the championship until that incident happened of course.
Having said all that, I am neither a fan of Ferrari or McLaren or any of their drivers, so it doesnt really matter to me if it was Massa or Hamilton who won that championship. Im a Renault fan and Alonso as well, so Im going to turn my focus on them now. Fernando Alonso finished the race in second position yesterday which is not bad at all considering the season we had to go through. I think we finally have the right car, but it just need a little bit of improvement before we can challenge again with the big boys. We have did it before and we can do it again. Looking back at the season, Im going to be honest here and say that I didnt watch all the races, but I did manage to catch a few and out of those few, I have to say that my favourite race was the one in our beautiful city of Singapore. You can say I am biased as it was also the first win for the season for Renault and my favourite driver Alonso followed by another victory at Japan. He has been in great form as of late and Im hoping that he will stay with the team for next season. I mean looking at the last few races, there is no reason why he shouldn't. Im not sure about his teammate though Nelson Piquet though. He has been very disappointing throughout the entire season and Im not sure if Renault should stick with him for next season. It reminds me of Heikki Kovalainen. His luck has change for the better since moving on to McLaren, so maybe its the car that need to have some changes and not the driver.
Before I forget, I just want to pay my tribute to Red Bull’s David Coulthard. Yesterday's race was his last race in his illustrious Formula 1 career in which he managed to record a total of 13 wins, 12 pole positions and an impressive haul of 535 points. The statistics was taken from the Formula 1 website so Im not trying to make it up. It was really unfortunate that he had to end his race yesterday in the first lap because of an incident involving both Nico Rosberg and Kazuki Nakajima. Im not really a huge fan of him either but I like him as a person and all the things he have contributed to the sport to make it better. He's not the Michael Schumacher type of guy but Im sure he is well respected by everyone. The world of Formula 1 will miss his competitive spirit on the track Im sure. Good luck in your future endeavours David. You have been great. Looking forward now, bring on next season!
*The report was taken from AFP.
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