Quite simple, really. Even forgetting all the hype that had grown up around Hamilton he was clearly the dominant driver of the ’07 season and the McLarens were going well even in Alonso’s sometimes emotional hands. Hamilton’s points advantage was such that even if Kimi did get into the lead all he had to do was cruise around in fifth place. So what went wrong? He made his own error on the first lap when he inexplicably tried to race Alonso instead of letting him go, but then got caught out by a rare McLaren bit of unreliability and dropped down to 18th, making that fifth place goal very difficult; then the McLaren team, clearly rattled, disastrously called him in for an additional pit-stop which rendered it impossible. His drive up the field was reminiscent of Schumacher’s last year, giving it everything, taking risks, but it was not to be.

Even the last-minute fuel temperature fuss is unlikely to come to the rescue; the powers- that-be have obviously decided that Hamilton needs to wait another season for his first (of probably many) championships. As an aside, didn’t we all have a chuckle at the thought that the Interlagos Stewards couldn’t be sure what the outside temperature was…..?

Qualifying gave vital clues about how Ferrari and McLaren were going to run their races. Massa was clealy a little light and ran hard to put it on pole, obviously expected to run at the front of the race and either win it if Räikkönen didn’t need the points or ready to drop back and help his team mate if he needed it. At this stage Hamilton’s championship still seemed safe, he dropped his car into the other front row slot from where he could keep out of any first-corner shenanigans and do the necessary. Räikkönen and Alonso in the second row already looked as thought their chances had evaporated, Alonso being particularly downbeat as his verbal warfare with his team continued.

The start was dramatic. Both Ferraris got excellent traction off the line and Massa shot across to block Hamilton, allowing Kimi to come up on the outside and he almost got by the pair of them. But then he had a mid-corner wobble, had to get off the throttle and trapped Hamilton behind him which then allowed the slow-starting Alonso to pull alongside his team mate. In a move which had youthful inexperience written all over it, Hamilton then tried to race Alonso into the third corner, got caught on the marbles and went wide, and dropped down to eight. So much for keeping an eye on the Championship….

Worse would come. A ‘box full of neutrals slowed Hamilton to a crawl on the eighth lap and in the 30 or 40 seconds it took the pits to tell him how to reset everything he had dropped down to 18th. The championship race had become alive.

At the front the two Ferraris calmly circulated round, unthreatened by Alonso in a distant third place. Whilst Massa’s crew kept an eye on Hamilton’s progress up the order he stayed out in the lead but only narrowly from Räikkönen who would need those first place points at some stage of the race if Hamilton got back in the points and if Alonso stayed in third. Rather than staging a hamfisted passing manoeuvre on the track the Ferrari team swapped them around during the second pitstops and, with that, all Räikkönen had to do was win the race with Hamilton no higher than fifth. Alonso, back in third, was no threat as long as he got no higher and Massa in second would make sure of that.

In the old days there would now have been a time when tired V-12 engines would let go in a cloud of smoke and molten metal but the modern rev-limited F1 engine is so reliable that we had no real fears that the Ferraris would not make it to the finish – and give Kimi the World Championship. Hamilton continued his charge but only got as far as seventh, not enough to win the title (by just two points) but enough to match Alonso and take second on a countback.

With all this excitement happening at the front it would have been easy to miss some good racing going on behind, particularly involving the BMWs and the Williams of young Rosberg who had various lunges at each other but they finally finished with Rosberg in fourth, just five seconds behind Alonso, and Kubica and Heidfeld rounding out the top six. Although they didn’t feature that good in the results the Dead Bulls went quick, Webber and Coolthud fifth and ninth on the grid, and even their B-team went well. And not a moment to soon – Ralf Schumacher, underperforming and overpaid, was finally shuffled out of the F1door to go and graze out his years in the DTM or NASCAR or something…. With so many good youngsters about a few more should join him.

I never thought that 2007 was one of the better championships. The racing was generally dull, interspersed with occasional fun, and the modern F1 car has now been so over-aeroed as to be unexciting to the naked eye of even experienced watchers. Why not put them all in those big lumbering GP Masters cars, which are standing around unused? That would make for some good, sliding-around type racing! As always, wet weather provided some spectator relief and showed that occasionally these lads earn their phenomenal salaries. The most fun of the year was watching F1’s administrators earn the derision of the fans with their mid-season frolics when maybe they too were just a bit bored with what was happening on the track. And I still can’t get out of my mind the picture of that poor copyshop lad, being asked to copy 700 pages; no wonder he complained.

Ferrari properly won the Constructors title as well, overhauling the McLaren total with this dominant one-two result . Congratulations to the Scuderia, to Kimi on his first world title, and to Felipe Massa for riding a good shotgun in the second half of the season.

Footnote
After the race it was announced that fuel samples taken from fourth place Williams of Nico Rosberg and the fifth and sixth place BMW-Saubers were more than 10 degrees cooler than ambient. This is in contravention of the regulations. The Race Stewards decided not too act as they lacked: "a precise reading of the temperature of 'fuel on board the car' which shows fuel at more than 10 degrees centigrade below ambient temperature"; and "a regulation stating in clear terms that for the purposes of Article [6.5.5] the definitive ambient temperature shall be indicated on the FOM timing monitors alone."

McLaren appealed against this decision, although it is not clear they were entitled to as it did not concern one of their cars. However, IF the appeal is recognised and IF Williams, BMW and their drivers are subsequently disqualified and IF Hamilton is elevated to fourth in the race, then he will be Champion - NO CHANCE !

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