BRAZILIAN GRAND PRIX:FORMULA ONE has seen some nail-biting ends to a title battle in the past - Kimi Raikkonen's final-round victory last season, Michael Schumacher's stunning battle with Mika Hakkinen for the 2000 title at Suzuka, Prost and Senna running each other off track. But there can have been few like the Brazilian Grand Prix that yesterday made Lewis Hamilton Formula One's youngest championship winner and first black driver to take the title, writes Justin Hynes
For the first 70 laps of the race everything had gone according to plan. Felipe Massa blasted away from the lights in damp but comfortable conditions and held his lead with measured assuredness. He was doing exactly what he needed to do, if he had any hope of the title he had to win. Hamilton, though, was following his prescribed route to the title. Hamilton had qualified fourth, one better than the fifth he would need to claim the title. Avoiding trouble at the start, he bounced between fourth and fifth for almost the entire race.
A handful of laps from the end, however, the rain that had abated just before the race start returned. At first it looked as if it would hold off, a few spots bringing out the umbrellas among the crowd, but there was no sign of real moisture on the track. Four laps from the end, though, it began a steady tattoo in the pitlane. The tyre warmers came off, wet weather rubber being rolled out in expectation of the first drivers to break.
In trundled Kimi Raikkonen from second. Third-placed Alonso followed, but both were beyond the key battle. That was going on between leader Massa, looking comfortable in front and Hamilton, then fourth but being pursued and pressured by Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel.
Massa took on the tyres he needed and rejoined the fray, still leading - the only place he could finish if he wanted to secure his first title. Then came Hamilton and Vettel, nose to tail.
Hamilton made it away first, but Vettel was close. Ahead on track though, Toyota's Timo Glock was gambling. The German had declined the chance to take on wet tyres and with just a few laps left was now fourth and tip-toeing around, hoping against hope that he would have enough in reserve to make it to the flag before the shower became a deluge.
Hamilton, though, was still safe, sitting in fifth with Vettel boxed in behind him. But suddenly everything changed. The pair came upon the BMW of Robert Kubica. As Hamilton and Vettel protected their lines, Kubica made a bold move, attempting to pass Hamilton to unlap himself. It caught the McLaren driver by surprise. As Kubica ran wide, he dragged Hamilton with him. Vettel, sensing the opportunity and with no interest in Hamilton's title bid, seized the chance, bustling past the McLaren down the inside and relegating Hamilton to a title-busting sixth.
In the partisan, pro-Massa grandstands the crowd bayed for blood. In the space of a single frenzied lap the complexion of the entire season had changed. But it would change again.
Hamilton could find no way past the charging Vettel and the battle looked over but as they toured the Interlagos circuit for the final time, Timo Glock's Toyota came into view in the distance. The German's gamble had failed, Glock losing over 17 seconds on the final lap as he tried to baby his Toyota through the worsening conditions. As the three hit the final corner, Hamilton's moment arrived.
A few hundred yards ahead Massa was roaring towards the chequered flag and his home fans were rising to their feet to acclaim their first champion since Aytron Senna in 1991. But behind Massa, Glock had run out of time. Slithering horribly on the wrong tyres, he was at a crawling pace. Vettel swept past, Hamilton with seconds to spare followed. The title was his.
"Before it started to rain I was quite comfortable, but struggling a bit to keep the pace up, but I could stay ahead of Vettel," a breathless Hamilton admitted afterwards. "Then he got past me and I was told I had to get past him and I can't believe in the last corner I got past Glock, I have to thank God. The team told me just before I got to Glock that I had to pass him, until then I was pushing to get Vettel. It was one of the toughest races of my life.
"I was shouting: 'Do I have it, do I have it?' and then they came on when I was at Turn One and they told me and I was ecstatic."
Which left Massa with the agony. At the end the Brazilian lifted his visor and with a gloved hand wiped tears from his eyes. He had won the battle but in the final moments lost the war. "That is really an emotional day for me," he said. "You do everything perfectly but then we saw Lewis passing Glock again and that is really mixed a lot of emotions, but that is racing. The race finishes at the chequered flag. We finished in front and we have to be very proud of that. We missed it by one point but that is racing.
"I know how to win and I know how to lose. It is another day of my life. I will learn a lot from this day but I am very emotional."
McLaren boss Ron Dennis admitted that his team were caught completely unaware by Glock's decision to stay on dry tyres in the closing stages. "It was a really difficult race," he said. "We saw the Ferraris and Alonso go away we just couldn't race . . . you know we didn't want to race with them. So we had fourth and fifth to play with.
"Who would have thought Glock would stay out on dry tyres? We were just looking at it in the last two laps thinking; 'Do we fight for the position with Vettel, or do we let him go, and how's it going to happen?' Boy, I tell you that was one hell of a call and we're pleased for the team, but delighted for Lewis."
Massa's win, coupled with Raikkonen's second place, earned Ferrari the consolation prize of the constructors' title, but few remember who wins the battle of the car builder. Formula One is a sport which, despite all the millions spent on science technology, remains about drivers. When the lights go out at the start of the race, the science is brushed aside, replaced by all too fallible human beings. Yesterday, Lewis Hamilton proved he was just a little bit less fallible than most.
