HAMILTON BLOWS TITLE, RAIKONEN SNEAKS THE GLORY!
The year was 1986, I was a kid living in Yeovil that hadn't even watched a Grand Prix yet. Nigel Mansell against all expectations(particularly those of his then double-world champion Williams teammate Nelson Piquet) was leading the World Championship going into the final race in Australia with Piquet and McLaren's Alain Prost trailing him. Well that race has passed into legend, Mansell went out with a blown tyre, Piquet came in for a precautionary stop and Prost wound up winning the title! Fast forward to '07 and it was Lewis Hamilton vs double world champion teammate Fernando Alonso vs Ferrari's Kimi Raikonen. At Interlagos. Further down the grid Kasuki Nakajima. Still the big question was, who would be the 2007 World Champion? Could history be made? And was the Walkabout going to have a decent atmosphere for an F1 race?
Well Davidson and Kovalainen went out in Q1 with Jenson only just making it through to Q2 by the skin of his teeth only to get hammered in the second session and having to start P16. Both Lewis and DC made it into Q3 though. Lewis got the first provisional pole time in Q3 but then Massa neat him for his sixth pole of the season. Lewis P2, Raikonen P3, Alonso P4, DC P9. In terms of Lewis's championship chances,m that did me nicely.
Well despite a dodgy initial start, Jenson made it up to 14th after which he got stuck behind Sato. Even in the early stages of the race though, the car was feeling dodgy - the car seemingly having tons of understeer! He did mange to get past Sato but the next time he got the TV camera's attention he was out of the race after engine problem. Not the best way to end the season but then again it's not exactly been a good season for Jens, after ending last year as the undisputed British number one.
DC might have had a better race but if Red Bull were relying on safety cars then they clearly need to go on a strategy course before next season! Webber's early retirement boosted him up a place but though the Scotsman did run in the points for part of the race a collision with Nakajima contributed to him coming up empty on this occassion. The Scotsman did complete the race but only finished 9th - he was certainly hoping for better than that though.
Lewis had an absolutely disasterous start to the race, mugged by pretty much everyone, he found himself down in 7th, he passed Heidfeld to grab 6th but then his engine stopped temporarilly. It got going again but bu that point he was in 17th and in theory a virtual scratch in terms of the title race. However he came into F1 with a rep for storming through the field in GP2 and had no problem dealing with the back part of the grid and made it into the points, but only in 7th, needing his rivals to have a bad race as well if he was to take the title.
That did not happen. The Ferraris were away at the start with Massa leading with Alonso following behind in third. At that point it looked as though Alonso would be able to defend his title but of course Ferrari were going to have other ideas. The men in red decided to long-stint Raikonen, which not only meant he got the lead after Massa pitted but kept it after his pitstop and that meant that the Finn maged to pull off his second win in a row with Massa finishing second for Ferrari's 4th 1-2 of the season!
So, history has repeated itself! Raikonen, in the Prost '86 role, written off in terms of the championship race has managed to win his first World Championship with 110 points(the first Finn to win the title since Mika Hakkinen in '99). Hamilton has to settle for 2nd place in his rookie year with 109 points(including four wins and five second places). He cannot be too dissapointed with this.
He is:
The first Brit to finish in 2nd place in the World Championship since DC in '01!
The first British rookie 'ever' to mount a serious challenge for the title and finish in the championship top two!
The first F1 rookie to mount a serious challenge for the title and finish in the championship top two since Jacques Villenerve in '96! The dfference between Lewis and Villenerve? Villenerve came into F1 off the back of winning the CART/Indycar title. Lewis came in off the back of winning only the GP2 title.
Further down, you have DC holding steady in 10th with 14 points(first time two Brits have finished in the championship top 10 since Jenson and DC in '04). As for Jenson, he finishes even further down, in 15th(with no top four finishes).
It is the end of the beginning of the post-Schumacher era. And despite the legal insanity that's beeen a part of this season, it's been one hell of a ride, from a UK or neutral standpoint. And if this is just for starters?
Welcome to the new Golden Age!
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