In 2007. we have seen a dramatic turnaround in the driver’s championship. Lewis Hamilton arrived at the last race in Brazil with seven points lead ahead of Kimi Raikkonen and four points ahead of his team mate Fernando Alonso. All that Lewis needed was fifth place if Kimi won and third place if Alonso won.
Ferraris were faster at Interlagos and secured first (Massa) and third (Raikkonen) place at the start, while Lewis and Alonso were second and fourth. Raikkonen jumped Lewis at the start and through a series of the first three corners Alonso and Hamilton were next to each other.
And instead of backing off and settling down at fourth place that guarantees him the championship, Hamilton brakes very late on the outside of turn four, goes off the track and drops to eighth place.
In the second lap Hamilton passes Trulli for Toyota and in the lap six he passes Heidfeld in a BMW Sauber for the sixth place. Then he ecountered the problems with the transmission, but manages to reset the software and continue the race.
He lost about 30 seconds and dropped to 18th place. By the end of the race Lewis was able to get to the seventh place, Alonso finished third and Raikkonen won after Massa deliberately made an mistake to let him through the pitstops. Finn became the world champion in his first season for Ferrari after four seasons in McLaren. Ferrari had already secured the constructors title since McLaren were stripped of all points for possessing Ferrari’s technical documents. They were also punished and fined for 100 million US dollars.
