Kimi Räikkönen is the 2007 Formula One World Champion - for now

Title won on the track, but it could just as easily be lost again in court

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Amid scenes of the highest drama and something approaching low farce, at the time of writing Kimi Räikkönen of Ferrari and Finland is the holder of this season's Formula One Drivers' World Championship title, subject to an appeal by the McLaren team against a decision by Brazilian stewards to take no action to alter the results of Sunday's race.
     
Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix was won by Räikkönen in a Ferrari 1-2 with his teammate Felipe Massa taking the runner-up spot. Since McLaren's Fernando Alonso could only finish 3rd, and the British rookie sensation and man-most-likely-to-win Lewis Hamilton finished down in 7th after gearbox problems and a first-lap blunder, Räikkönen came from an apparently impossible position to snatch the title by a single point.
      Räikkönen thus emulated Keijo Rosberg (1982) and Mika Häkkinen (1998 & 1999) and became the third Finnish driver to lift the F1 title.
     
However... no sooner had the champagne been sprayed and the press conference platitudes been delivered, when this year's Formula One season - which has been both exceptionally even and quite exceptionally litiginous and contentious - slid once more into "dispute-mode".
      It was reported that the Brazilian stewards were looking into technical irregularities involving three cars that finished in 4th, 5th, and 6th places in the race.
      Headline writers around the world cursed as they struggled to update their "Räikkönen wins dramatic title triumph" story to "Räikkönen title in jeopardy over stewards' enquiry".
     
In the early hours of Monday morning, the stewards resolved to take no action to disqualify Nico Rosberg (Williams, 4th), Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber, 5th), or Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber, 6th).
      Had they gone the other way, it was claimed, Lewis Hamilton would have been placed 4th in the race and would have won the F1 title by two points, instead of the one-point margin enjoyed by Räikkönen.
     
The Ferrari victory party, put on ice while the stewards made their decision, then went ahead, and the pressmen changed their headlines a second time, while the public probably wondered how many times Formula One intended to shoot itself in the foot in a single season.
      We have seen races decided on the track (occasionally), in the pit lane, and in an FIA court of arbitration that took away all of the McLaren team points for the year after a spying scandal. We have seen considerable acrimony not just between the highly litiginous racing stables but also within the McLaren team itself, as relations between Alonso and Hamilton and Alonso and McLaren team boss Ron Dennis plumbed the depths.
     
The excitement of the final race, in which three drivers had a chance of glory, with Räikkönen being the rank outsider of the trio, was tempered by the thought that once again matters might be decided off the track rather than on it.
      And so it now appears: McLaren have announced they will challenge the decision not to disqualify the Williams and the two BMW Saubers, who were apparently guilty of technical irregularities with the temperature of the fuel they used.
      The British team will request that the sport's governing body the FIA will hear their case on appeal.
     
Hence we can do little more than say that at present 28-year-old Kimi Räikkönen, the F1 runner-up in 2003 and 2005, is the provisional Formula One Drivers' World Champion for 2007. Furthermore, he won six races this season, two more than his nearest rivals.
      Since Räikkönen is already an extraordinarily wealthy young man, with properties all over the place, it is unlikely that his birthplace of Espoo will buy him the traditional plot of land on which to build a house (the standard Finnish gift to champions), but whatever they do plan to do to mark his win will have to wait until the ink is dry on the final FIA decision.
      If the result stands, of course Espoo will have secured the one thing (apart from a metro line) they have been looking for lately: some means of getting on an even playing field with neighbouring Vantaa, who have had bragging rights since 1998 because Mika Häkkinen was born there.
     
We extend our congratulations to Kimi Matias Räikkönen - it has been a gruelling season all round. And it may not be over yet.
      Räikkönen is known to enjoy a drink now and then - when this is all settled, he will probably have earned one.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  SUNDAY NIGHT: Kimi Räikkönen wins F1 World Championship title (21.10.2007)
  Formula One: Räikkönen retains slender championship hopes after Chinese Grand Prix (8.10.2007)

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  Formula One

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