The Race
The Ferrari's were dominant this afternoon with Felipe Massa leading from the start until the second pit stop when Kimi Raikkonen reversed the position with his team mate to lead to the chequered flag and in doing so becoming the world champion by one point. At the start he had tucked in behind Felipe Massa, overtaking Lewis Hamilton and this upset the rookie, whose team mate Fernando Alonso moved onto the inside line overtaking Hamilton, who probably made the mistake by trying to reverse the position with an overtaking manouvre on the outside. This led to an off and a drop to seventh before he recovered. Very shortly afterwards on lap 8 Hamilton was out of luck again when a gearbox glitch lost him 30 seconds and put him down to 18th place. A spirited fight back and helped by some retirements meant that he finished in 7th place, despite a third pit stop for a short stint on the soft rubber, two place below the magical fifth place needed. The team said afterwards that this third stop had gained them 10 seconds so it was not a bad team strategy. Fernando Alonso dropped away from the two Ferraris, his 2 race engine said to be down on power. Nico Rosberg had a great race and indeed the interest probably revolved around him and the two BMW`s of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld with Jarno Trulli always looking dangerous, who managed to take the last point. Kazuki Nakajima managed to finish tenth behind David Coulthard in his first Formula 1 race, the Japanese managing to run over a couple of the Williams mechanics during his pit stop, luckily without either of them being seriously injured. Kimi Raikkonen was probably the most appropriate winner for the world championship title this year especially in view of the infighting at the McLaren camp
Qualifying Q3
Felipe Massa gave his home crowd what they wanted, his second successive Brazilian Grand Prix pole position and a repeat of last years result will send the crowd ecstatic and would not Lewis Hamilton of the Championship crown if he repeats today´s qualifying position - second. The rookie nearly took pole when he went fastest in the middle sector, but still managed to bump Raikkonen down into third ahead of Fernando Alonso, who seemed to have ruined his chances on the out lap by graining his tyres, the Current World Champion having to put in a last minute flyer to put him ahead of the impressive Mark Webber, putting the two BMW's of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica behind him with Jarno Trulli, David Coulthard and Nico Rosberg rounding up the top ten. Once again Lewis found that perfect last lap to importantly split the two Ferrari´s. He has a new engine against Fernando Alonso´s second race engine (used in China), so he is in a strong position to be the first rookie world champion tomorrow.
2nd Practice (Friday afternoon)
This morning it was the two Ferrari's of Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa setting the pace with World championship leader Lewis Hamilton learning the twisty circuit, completing 10 laps and setting the fifth quickest time, with Fernando Alonso only going out for an installation lap. This afternoon it was Lewis Hamilton (1m12.767s) that set the fastest time ahead of his team mate Fernando Alonso (1m12.889s). The Spaniard was 0.122s behind despite clocking the fastest times in sectors two and three. The "local boy" Felipe Massa (1m13.075s) was third ahead of Kimi Raikkonen (1m13.549s). Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella (1m13.549s) took a strong fifth place, edging out the first BMW of Robert Kubica (1m13.587s) with the two Williams of Nico Rosberg (1m13.655s) and Alex Wurz's replacement Kazuki Nakajima (1m13.664s) being impressive, just 0.009s slower the the German. David Coulthard (1m13.706s) continued in form with a ninth fastest time ahead of the second BMW of Nick Heidfeld (1m13.785s). Lewis Hamilton who is currently under investigation by the stewards for using one more set of wet weather tyres than permitted in the morning session and it remains to be seen if there will be a penalty for this contravention of the rules and if so what it will be, which of course could affect the outcome of this weekend. It is not over until the chequered flag on sudnay. Anything can happen between now and then.
The Race
Brazilian Grand Prix on ITV
Live qualifying Saturday 20 October 1630-1830 ITV4
Quali highlights Saturday 20 October 2350-0050 ITV1
Live race Sunday 21 October 1600-1900 ITV1
Highlights Sunday 21 October 2345-0045 ITV1
Highlights re-run Monday 22 October 1800-1900 ITV4
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