SUNDAY NIGHT: Kimi Räikkönen wins F1 World Championship title

Victory in Brazil secures championship by a single point - unless stewards decide otherwise

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In the sort of nail-biting climax to the Formula One season that would probably be rejected by a Hollywood producer as “too clichéd”, Kimi Räikkonen (Ferrari) became the third Finn to capture the Drivers’ World Championship at Interlagos on Sunday.
     
Victory in the Braziliam Grand Prix was enough to secure a one-point win in the title race, after Fernando Alonso finished third and his McLaren team-mate, the British rookie sensation Lewis Hamilton, could do no better than 7th place. Räikkönen's Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa took 2nd place.
      Räikkönen, who at one point this season was no fewer than 26 points off the lead in the drivers' championship table, went into the final race seven points adrift of Hamilton and three behind Alonso, and his overall victory was indubitably a surprise - most of the races this season have seen McLaren and Ferrari cars filling the first four places.
     
Had this "routine" result come to pass, even winning would not have been enough for Räikkönen to secure the title. As it was, he emerged with 110 points, one more than Alonso and Hamilton. The British driver took the runner-up spot by virtue of having more second place finishes than his team-mate.
      Räikkönen now joins Keijo "Keke" Rosberg (1982) and Mika Häkkinen (1998 & 1999) on the roster of Finnish winners of Formula One, and has probably put himself into serious contention when the time comes to select the Finnish Sports Personality of the Year.
     
     
Naturally we shall return to this subject with more tomorrow morning, including the results of an enquiry by Brazilian race stewards into technical irregularities in the Williams and BMW Sauber cars. As if this season did not already have enough bizarre twists and turns, on and off the track, were these three cars - which finished in 4th, 5th, and 6th place - to be disqualified, it would elevate Lewis Hamilton to 4th place and in so doing make HIM the 2007 World Champion. Shortly after 2 a.m. on Monday morning, Eurosport reported on its website that no action would be taken against the drivers concerned - Nico Rosberg (Williams, 4th) Robert Kubica, and Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber, 5th and 6th), thus suggesting that the result and the title placings would stand.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Formula One: Räikkönen retains slender championship hopes after Chinese Grand Prix (8.10.2007)

Links:
  Eurosport: Räikkönen title confirmed (02:28, Monday)
  Formula One

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