Brazilian Grand Prix Review

As has been said throughout the course of the year, the closeness between Ferrari and McLaren always meant that this would be a title fight to the wire. One point ended up separating the top three in the closest world championship in history, and Interlagos was the first three-way decider since 1986. And, as was the case 21 years ago when Alain Prost snuck through to steal the crown, the outsider has flown under the radar to pinch the title from two squabbling team-mates in a dream result few could have scripted.

In the end, things all evened out in a sensational and unexpected manner, and the last three thrilling races brought the season to a heart-stopping climax. All four of the Ferrari and McLaren drivers had rollercoaster seasons. By the end, they all had roughly the same number of mechanical mishaps at crucial moments; they all made about the same number of decisive driving errors; they all had their dominant races but also moments when either their car or they themselves were comparatively uncompetitive.

But, in a year tainted by off-track imbroglios and official intervention and meddling, McLaren and their drivers in particular have tested the limits of legality and good sportsmanship and have been like bruised and battered litigants addicted to coming back to the courts for more. Surely that's no way for a sporting championship to be decided. Out of all four title protagonists, Raikkonen was the only one not to get caught up in any histrionics against any of the others during the season. He's too cool for that.

Bernie Ecclestone may consider Hamilton as the saviour of F1, and that the monotonic Raikkonen would make a horrible ambassador for the sport. True, Kimi is far from eloquent, but he is not without character (whether you like a youthful partygoer or not), he has got on with the job all season, and he has approached the World Championship in a more sporting and fair manner than others who have claimed the moral high ground. In short, a true sportsman, not a schemer, has won a sporting championship.

The Iceman has narrowly missed out twice before: in 2003 when the new points system rewarded his consistency despite only two wins to Michael Schumacher's six, and in 2005 when he equalled Alonso with seven wins apiece and was undoubtedly the fastest man on track, but McLaren unreliability cost him dearly. Alonso already has two titles under his belt; Hamilton - you presume - will have other opportunities in the years to come. So after seven years it seems just that Raikkonen joins the elite club of world champions.

Of course, all this is subject to McLaren's appeal against the non-punishment of BMW and Williams for their use of under-temperature fuel during the race. The issue seems rather black and white, and the stewards' excuses for letting both teams off the hook seemed like the epitome of clutching at straws. It was as though the stewards did not want to disqualify those two teams and elevate Hamilton to 4th, and give Lewis the title on a technicality after the thrilling on-track finale.

Thankfully, the rules state that in the event of a disqualification, it is discretionary whether other drivers are moved up the order. Even if McLaren's appeal succeeds, it will be mind-boggling if Hamilton inherits 4th place and the title. No one in their right mind wants to see arguably the best championship fight ever decided by such a travesty which would drag the sport back into bad publicity after a feelgood finish. To his immense credit, even Lewis himself has said that he does not want to win the title like that.

One could justify handing the crown to Lewis on a plate because 'the rules are the rules', but that would be cold comfort to everyone involved, and, frankly, embarrassing for F1. Especially when you consider how Hamilton has already benefited from officialdom this year. Ferrari's floor was forcibly modified, it now emerges, after a tip-off that was part and parcel of the Spygate saga. Lewis won in Canada in a race where the Safety Car worked in his favour and Alonso and Massa were punished, arguably harshly.

We would also be glad if Hamilton has missed out on his historic rookie title for another reason, if it meant that a nice big humble pie-shaped dent has been cast into the unbearable 'Lewisteria' that has got worse and worse as the season has progressed. There was no better example of this in Brazil than the ITV commentary team, whose feed we get here in Australia. James Allen and Martin Brundle are decidedly pro-British at the best of times, but here they took hyperbole to a brand new level.

After lap 1, Allen was reassuring viewers (or himself) of Hamilton's masterful overtaking prowess. When the rookie dropped further back, the race became Lewis' title mission, as if the championship was his to win or lose and for Alonso or Raikkonen to simply luck into if Hamilton failed. Every passing move was a case of "scything past", regardless of the fact that all of Lewis' victims, especially Rubens Barrichello, were generous. Even the reliable Brundle convinced himself that Lewis didn't need to make his final stop!

By contrast, the lack of excitement that greeted Raikkonen's race and title victory was palpable. It had been one-eyed commentary at its most annoying, and for that we award the ITV crew the 'Reject of the Race' award. After a year when nearly everything went Hamilton's way, for neutral observers (or for us who know that supporting Mark Webber is a masochistic endeavour) it was a relief to see the 'Lewisteria' bubble being burst, and one hopes the FIA allows it to stay that way.

Ferrari were always in sublime control of this race, once they had made a brilliant start (Kimi especially) and blocked out Hamilton in a move that almost looked synchronised to perfection. Both Massa and Raikkonen had simply awesome race pace and tyre endurance, especially on the super-softs, and ran away with the race in a way that no-one quite expected. It was just a matter of which red car would win, and Massa spent all weekend showing that he was pumped up to repeat his emotional victory a year ago.

REJECT OF THE RACE
ITV Commentary Team
Jingoism is fine until it gets in the way of professionalism

As it turned out, McLaren were never in the hunt on this day. The ridiculous 'equality steward' in the McLaren garage meant that Alonso was saddled with a brand of brakes he didn't like, plus he didn't qualify particularly well, and once it became clear that he could not challenge the Ferraris and the positions were playing out such that Hamilton would be deprived of the title, he seemed content to let it happen. His congratulating of Raikkonen afterwards was both genuine and a backhanded swipe at his own team.

But for Hamilton and McLaren, these last two races and Brazil in particular has to go down as one of the biggest chokes in F1 history. In the last ten races, they have blown an unprecedented 26-point lead over Raikkonen. In these last two events, Hamilton scored two points to Raikkonen's 20 and wasted a 17-point advantage. And, just as it was both a driver and team error that caused his retirement in Shanghai, so both driver and team were to blame here.

When there was no pressure in Australia and Malaysia, Hamilton pulled off daring outside first lap moves. But here, when the pressure was on, when Lewis was flustered having been blocked out by the Ferraris at the start and caught napping by Alonso on the exit of the Senna S, he could not make his move around the outside at turn 4 stick. Apart from the fact that he lost several positions, the point is that he could have been cautious about it all, as 4th place would have been more than enough to clinch the championship.

The brief gearbox glitch that then struck a few laps later was McLaren's one and only technical drama on race day this season, and some would say that it was long overdue. That, plus Lewis' retirement in China, puncture in Turkey and his woes at the Nurburgring, evenly counter-balanced Alonso's crash in Japan, Raikkonen's Monaco qualifying error and retirements at Barcelona and the Nurburgring, and Massa's Montreal disqualification, Monza retirement, and off-weekend at the Hungaroring.

McLaren's rationale is unfathomable. It not only meant an additional 30 seconds to make up on top of the deficit already conceded, it also meant the disadvantage of being lapped and having to pass several drivers more than once as he yo-yoed up and down the field. Hamilton's best chance of getting back up to that magic 5th place was a long middle stint on a two-stop strategy. Yes, it would have meant a heavy car, but the McLaren would have had a car advantage and Interlagos is a place where passing is possible.

In other words, he would still have been able to make up ground on the rest of the field during a long middle stint, and once all the second stops had shaken out he would have been close to Nick Heidfeld and Nico Rosberg, whilst letting Kubica and Trulli come back to him after their third stops. Lewis would then have had a chance of getting past some of them on track to climb back to 5th which would have been enough to secure the title by one point. Thus the three-stop choice was a tactical blunder of the highest order.

As for the rest of the field, whether he gets to keep the points or not, 4th place was a sensational way for Rosberg to round out a quite brilliant year of consistently forceful and fast race driving. He made a longish second stint work perfectly, shook off David Coulthard, got himself into the battle with the BMWs, and his aggression against firstly Heidfeld and then Kubica late in the race was excellent. It is his best result in F1 to date and no doubt a portent of things to come.

Rosberg's fastest lap of the race was only 0.009s slower than Alonso's, but they both ended up being outdone in that department by Nico's team-mate Kazuki Nakajima on debut. Everyone knows that the son of Satoru Nakajima got this one-off opportunity at Toyota's behest as Williams' engine supplier, and his GP2 efforts this year have not tended to suggest that Kazuki is obvious F1 material. But of all the pleasant surprises during this Brazilian GP weekend, Nakajima was certainly one of them.

The fact that Rosberg overcame the BMWs here either indicate that the rest of the field really closed the gap to the German-Swiss cars, which for most of the season have been the clear third best team, or that BMW have dropped the ball a little as they look towards 2008. One guesses that it's the latter. Heidfeld, who admirably racks up points but never really stirs the emotions, drove in Brazil like a man going through his paces - solid, workmanlike, scored more points, but little else to note.

Kubica has been far more racer-like in the last few events, and at Interlagos on a three-stop strategy he had to be. He clinically dived past Alonso in the middle stages, and towards the end opportunistically took advantage of Heidfeld and Rosberg dicing to sneak past them both, because Rosberg eventually got the better of him. But overall, when the Pole looks at the points table and sees Heidfeld on 61 and himself on 39, he will probably feel as though he has underachieved somewhat this season.

Toyota claimed the last point in 8th through Trulli, who had his strongest race for a very long time. Although Ralf Schumacher's departure from the team has already been announced, it is believed that Trulli's seat is not safe either, and Jarno's performance was that of someone wanting to prove a point. Either that, or his three-stop strategy allowed him to drive the whole race as if it were like qualifying, which has always been his forte, instead of drifting into his all-too-usual raceday malaise.

Schumacher finished his Toyota career, and quite possibly his entire F1 career, with the kind of whimper which has characterised his season, in complete contrast to his brother's blaze-of-glory exit at the same track last year. He moved into 11th place by around lap 40 and, notwithstanding his final stop after that, stayed in that position for the rest of the race. He says he'll land an F1 drive next year, but it's near impossible to see who would want to take him on.

Toro Rosso has also capitalised as enhancement of the Adrian Newey-designed chassis has continued. Both Sebastian Vettel and Vitantonio Liuzzi got into Q2 comfortably, although the satellite team has also picked up big brother's unreliability, Vettel retiring with more hydraulics issues. Liuzzi's race was compromised early by losing his nose in the usual first corner melee, but in truth the last third of the season, and how he has fared compared to Vettel, has done Tonio's career prospects no harm at all.

Last year Super Aguri starred at Interlagos, claiming 7th and 9th in the fastest lap standings, but there were no repeat heroics this year. In fact, there have been no real heroics from either Sato or Anthony Davidson for a while, probably not since Davidson's qualifying lap in Q2 in Turkey, as car development has tailed off and money has run tight. In recent races, they have been regular victims of the Q1 cut and raced just clear of the very tail-end of the field, and Brazil was no exception.

It was also more of the same for Spyker. After Spa, where Adrian Sutil's performance suggested that the B-spec F8-VII was a real improvement, the team have remain rooted to the back of the grid, and it was not a memorable farewell for the Spyker name in F1 as the team looks like becoming Force India next year. In fact, their weekend rather summed up their season-long problems: lack of speed, questionable driver quality, too many driver errors, and unreliability.

Sakon Yamamoto was once again below-par in qualifying, and although Giancarlo Fisichella did come back onto the track right in his path, Sakon should have had more awareness of what was going on in order to at least try to avoid the eventual spectacular collision which put them both out. Sutil also clashed with Davidson before eventually retiring with brake issues; the German has been quick, but his endless errors and lack of maturing may have cost him a better seat for 2008 just as the driver market opens up.

And then there was Renault - theirs has not been a disastrous season like Honda or even Toyota, but in their last two visits to Interlagos they came away celebrating title victories. The contrast could not be more marked, as the R27 chassis continued to struggle in the end-of-season flyaway races. Depending on how the driver market shakes out, this may also have been Fisichella's last GP, and he went out with the wrong kind of bang, precipitated by his own error going into the Senna S.

Spare a thought for Heikki Kovalainen though. He has been awesome in the second half of the season, but he was slightly off in qualifying and missed the Q1 cut. He then got shoved off at the first corner, and he finished up with a heavy accident at turn 3. It was his first and only DNF all season, spoiling his chance of joining an elite club of drivers who finished every race in a year, and losing the opportunity to surpass Tiago Monteiro's 2005 record of 16-straight finishes for a driver in his rookie season.

In the final reckoning, though, all but the McLarens and Ferraris were bit players in a season that was not the best action-wise for much of the year, although the tight championship battle continued to brood and approach boiling point especially thanks to off-track controversies, until three rousing final races brought the championship to an exhilarating denouement that no-one could have foreseen. Let's just hope the FIA doesn't spoil things in the weeks to come!