2007 Brazilian F1 Grand Prix Race Report & Results

Event: Brazilian Grand Prix
Track: Autodromo Interlagos

Weather: dry, warm, sunny

Kimi Raikkonen won his 15th F1 World Championship race at the 2007 Brazilian F1 GP, sealing his 1st F1 World Drivers Championship by a single point over Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso in one of the most improbable comebacks in F1 history. The Ferrari driver started from 3rd on the grid and won at Interlagos by 1.493 seconds from teammate Felipe Massa. It was the 204th win for the Ferrari F1 team.

Massa pole at his home Grand Prix

Interlagos on 21 October 2007 opened with Felipe Massa taking pole at his home Grand Prix with a 1:11.931 lap, Hamilton second for McLaren, Raikkonen third for Ferrari, Alonso fourth. Raikkonen arrived at Interlagos 7 points behind Hamilton with 10 available: needing to win with Hamilton finishing sixth or lower. Improbable, but not impossible.

Race day: Hamilton disaster, Raikkonen wins the improbable

Hamilton lost places at the start, then went off-track at Turn 4 while battling Alonso, dropping to 8th. On lap 8 his McLaren suffered a gearbox glitch that dropped him to last, out of the points. He recovered only to 7th. Meanwhile Massa led 46 laps, Raikkonen took over at the second round of pit stops (lap 50), and drove home to a Ferrari 1-2 with Massa cutting his teammate every strategic and pace advantage necessary. Alonso third but out of the title fight. Rosberg fourth for Williams-Toyota, Kubica fifth for BMW Sauber, Heidfeld sixth. Raikkonen set the fastest lap on lap 66 with a 1:12.445.

Raikkonen champion by one point, first Ferrari drivers title since 2004

Kimi Raikkonens 10 points combined with Hamiltons 2 (a 7th-place finish) and Alonsos 6 gave the Finn 110 points to the McLaren pairs 109 each. It was Ferraris first Drivers Championship since Michael Schumacher in 2004 and Raikkonens first F1 title in his 7th F1 season. McLaren had been excluded from the constructors championship for the spygate scandal, so Ferrari also took the constructors title by default with 204 points to what would have been McLarens 218.

Final championship: Raikkonen 110, Hamilton 109, Alonso 109

Kimi Raikkonen 110 points (6 wins), Lewis Hamilton 109, Fernando Alonso 109. The closest F1 title decider of the modern era, and one of the sports greatest comebacks. Ferrari took the constructors title 204 to Ferraris nearest scoring rival BMW Sauber 101. Hamilton, at 22, had missed the drivers title by one point in his rookie season and would be back stronger the following year.

Classification 2007 Brazilian F1 GP

Fastest lap: 1:12.445 min. by Kimi Raikkonen

About the author

Leopold

Leopold Pleijsier founded F1-Fansite.com in 2001 and has followed Formula 1 since the early 1980s. He writes about daily F1 news, race weekends, drivers and the sport’s history.

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