Massa wins the race but not the crown

The Brazilian dominated the 71-lap race, but it wasn’t good enough to deny Lewis Hamilton the World Championship. The McLaren driver, who needed only to finish in the top five to win the title, did just that.

It was one of the most gripping and unpredictable races in recent memory and Lewis Hamilton drove perfectly, dodging every possible pitfall and setback as he became Britain’s ninth world champion since the late Mike Hawthorn won the first title 50 years ago.

Hamilton’s success came at the expense of the local hero Felipe Massa, who started from pole position and utterly dominated the 71-lap race in his Ferrari F2008. The Brazilian had started the race knowing full well that his best might not be quite good enough, for even a race win could not guarantee him title-winning success as Hamilton needed only to finish in the top five to deny him the trophy.

Second place in the race fell to the Renault of Fernando Alonso with Kimi Raikkonen finishing third in the other Ferrari, the Finn relinquishing his world title at the circuit on which he had won it just 12 months ago.

Buoyed up by the passionate support from his hometown crowd Massa drove the perfect lap to grab pole position in qualifying and it seemed as though an all-Ferrari front row was in prospect as Raikkonen posted the second-fastest time less than a minute before the chequered flag fell. However, Toyota’s Jarno Trulli upset the applecart by bettering Raikkonen’s time, pushing the outgoing champion back into third on the grid. This in turn relegated Hamilton’s McLaren on to the dirty inside line of the grid in fourth place, the reassurance of having his team-mate, Heikki Kovalainen, alongside him only partly mitigating his concern that his old sparring partner Alonso would be starting right behind him in the Renault.

A heavy rain shower before the start delayed proceedings for 10 minutes and left the field struggling for grip when they finally accelerated away on intermediate tyres, hoping against hope that the track would quickly dry out. Massa led the pack away from the start, cleanly swinging into the first tight left-hander at the head of the pack. But true to its historic reputation, the first turn at Interlagos claimed three victims even before the race was 10 seconds old. David Coulthard was hit by Nico Rosberg’s Williams and the spinning Red Bull was then collected by the other Williams of Kazuki Nakajima.

For Coulthard it was a dismal way to call time on a career which had totalled 246 GPs, 13 of which he had won. Immediately the safety car was deployed so that the debris could be cleared up and it was not until the end of lap four that it was withdrawn, allowing Massa to begin easing away from Trulli, who was running ahead of Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso and Alonso who was looking menacingly quick in the Renault R28.

As the track began to dry out it was clear that the drivers were hyping themselves up for the challenge of switching to dry-weather rubber at the earliest opportunity. Vettel and Alonso stopped on lap nine followed next time round by the race leader, Massa, while Hamilton came in at the end of lap 11.

Hamilton had been third going into the first round of stops, but then settled down into fifth place as the pack strung out again, with Massa leading Vettel by a couple of lengths. The young German driver used the slippery conditions to showcase the talent which helped him become the sport’s youngest Grand Prix winner at Monza two months ago.

On lap 28 Hamilton moved up to fourth, which he held through to his second stop on lap 40. He dropped back to fifth and things began to get rather nerve-wracking as he was tangled up in a group of cars where minor contact could have flipped the championship in the wrong direction for him. From lap 43 to lap 51 he was fifth, then up to fourth on lap 52 and by now there was nobody close enough behind him to threaten or jeopardise his position.

It looked as though the race was going to run to a processional finish but for a heavy shower in the closing stages which had everybody scuttling back into the pit lane for wet-weather tyres.

Hamilton successfully returned to the race fifth but was immediately overtaken by Vettel which dropped him to sixth and left the McLaren team in apparent despair on the pit wall.

But coming up the hill towards the pit on the very last lap, and with Massa already poised to celebrate his World Championship victory, Hamilton nipped back past Timo Glock’s Toyota and was in fifth place as he crossed past the chequered flag. The job had been done and the closest World Championship in recent history resolved.