 Kimi Raikkonen snatched the 2007 world championship title from the McLaren drivers' grasp Kimi: "We never gave up on title."
Pre-race points leader Lewis Hamilton had a disastrous afternoon - dropping from second on the grid to fourth by the first corner, then going off the road further around the lap...
He then lost 40 seconds when his McLaren briefly cut out, and could
only recover to seventh.
Fernando Alonso finished a distant third, having had no answer for the
Ferraris' pace.
Raikkonen swept ahead of Hamilton off the line at the start of the
race, and as the Briton lost momentum his McLaren teammate Alonso was
able to slip through on the inside at the Senna S.
Hamilton tried to retaliate into the Descida do Lago corner, only to
lock a brake and run wide onto the run-off area, falling to eighth
place.
Eight laps later Hamilton's hopes were dealt an even worse blow when
his McLaren suddenly slowed. It got back up to speed further around the
circuit, but by that time he had fallen right down to 18th position.
At the front, the Ferraris pulled away from Alonso with ease. Massa
appeared to have the edge over Raikkonen, and led by as much as three
seconds.
But in the middle of the race Raikkonen crept closer to his
teammate, and after running three laps longer in the second pit
sequence the Finn was able to jump ahead of Massa and into the first
position he required.
Hamilton mounted a gallant recovery drive, and tried the strategic
gamble of switching to a three-stop strategy with a very short stint on
the unpopular supersoft tyres. Although he made rapid progress through
the midfield cars, he needed to finish fifth with Raikkonen on course
to win the race, and lacked the speed to catch the top six runners.
Alonso was never in contention for victory, lapping up to a second
slower than the two Ferraris. He briefly fell to fourth when passed by
charging three-stopper Robert Kubica, but regained the final podium
spot when the BMW pitted for the final time. It was to no avail,
however, as Raikkonen's win was sufficient to overturn Alonso's
three-point advantage.
Raikkonen cemented his victory by setting a new fastest lap with
just five laps remaining. He eased away from Massa to clinch his sixth
win of 2007 and his first world title in seven years of trying.
Nico Rosberg charged to fourth for Williams, despite almost tangling
with Nick Heidfeld while battling the BMW for the place with 11 laps to
go. Both ran extremely wide and let Heidfeld's teammate Kubica through,
but Rosberg was able to catch the Pole again and grab fourth on the
penultimate lap.
The lapped Hamilton moved up to seventh when Jarno Trulli (Toyota)
made a late final stop and fell to eighth, but the result meant that
the Briton ended up second in the championship that he had led for the
last five months.
Rosberg's fourth place secured Williams' fourth place in the
constructors' championship as neither Red Bull scored. Mark Webber
retired from fifth early on, while David Coulthard could only manage
ninth.
Williams' newcomer Kazuki Nakajima finished 10th on his Formula One
debut, but his race was marred when he slid into his pit crew at his
first stop, leaving two mechanics with minor injuries.
Last year's champions Renault had a disastrous season finale. Both
Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen suffered damage in the
opening laps - Fisichella being violently collected by Spyker's Sakon
Yamamoto after running across the grass at the Senna S.
Kovalainen continued with a new wing after his first corner incident, but later had a heavy crash at Turn 3.
source: autosport.com
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ja bileet pystyyn!!!!
