Kimi Raikkonen is 2008 World Champion
Oct 21, 2007
Ferrari has done the impossible! They put Kimi Raikkonen in a perfect car and he responded by winning the race and his first ever world title. Kimi achieved the seemingly-impossible in Brazil. He did what he knows best: won the race and Lewis Hamilton and McLaren were left to rue one failure in the entire race. All the permutations and combinations were well documented and Hamilton needed to finish in the top five and then he need not have worried about what happened to the others. But an electrical failure saw him drop 11 places and move to 18th in the first half of the race and lose any realistic chances of winning the title.
It was a scarlet race from that point forth. Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, though, had the perfect race. Ferrari could not have scripted it better. A scorching start put Hamilton in third and Raikkonen into second and the race and title was wide open from there on. Kimi had a flawless race and he took over the lead when Massa went in for his third pit stop. Questions may be raised about the timing of that stop, but it seemed to be more a result of Kimi's pace and skill that he took the top spot ahead of Massa.
For Fernando Alonso, the step-child in this McLaren team, he was very close and it must be heart-breaking for everyone at McLaren to miss out at this stage. Two successive failures will give Ron Dennis (and his team) endless sleepless nights but the fact is that Kimi Raikkonen is world champion.
Drama was rife at Interlagos even in the 68th lap when Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg were engaged in a duel. For a brief while, Kimi and Ferrari would have thought that a crash there could put paid to their hopes, but nothing of the sort transpired and Kimi, a stunned looking Kimi, we may add, went on to clinch the title for the first time in his career.
Lewis Hamilton had the perfect season for 15 races but in the last two, it went completely wrong. Starting from P2, he would have expected nothing less than a podium but he managed only seventh. Yes, he is the runner-up but that was also thanks to the fact that he had one second-place finish more than Fernando Alonso. That is how close it got!
The race as a whole was full of drama with a large number of retirements, but the most shocking was the performance of the Renaults who crashed out and caused a couple of crashes as well! Red Bull had a rather sombre outing, but Williams will be mighty pleased with Nico Rosberg's fourth place finish. BMW were consistent and steady as ever and one can't help but think what a more flamboyant and innovative driver could do with a car as reliable as that.
After the 17th race, Kimi Raikkonen was world champion by just one point. Speaking (and blushing) after the race, Kimi said, "We never thought we can't win. We knew we were in a tough position to win, but it was a good finish in the end. It was good to come back from so far behind and win. And I want to thank the team for coming through the hard times. We had the perfect team."
It was interesting to see Kimi blush and allow a smile in front of the cameras before starting with his signature drawl. He was really stunned as was evident with his talk. But he has said that he will enjoy this for at least the first month! Kimi did attribute the finish to the start and also acknowledged that the Ferrari strategy was to preserve tyres.
Elaborating on the closing stages, he said, "I wasn't 100% sure and if someone ahead of Lewis would have made a mistake, it would have been all over. It took a long time to know where Lewis finished, but it was great to finish like this."
Playing the perfect team-man, Felipe perhaps sacrificed the race. "Unfortunately, I wasn't fighting for the title but I am happy for the team and I am glad to have helped the team to win both titles. I hope it will be me one day, but for now, I am happy for Kimi."
"The track improved a lot since yesterday and in the end the super soft worked very well as opposed to what was being believed before the race," he added speaking about the track.
Alonso, who now gives up the championship, was disappointed with the outcome. "Kimi is the deserving champion? it was an up and down season, but he did well. I needed to score five points, but with Lewis' problem, I knew a Ferrari 1-2 would shut me out. And there were no mistakes from them. I was up with them in the first few laps but they did take good care of tyres and I could not keep up with them after the third lap. I did wish for a problem for them, but it just didn't happen! Nothing we could do."
A philosophical outlook to the season summed up Alonso's feelings: "My problems with the team are no secret and like with every job, there are ups and downs. I had a great, competitive car and I would like to thank McLaren for that."
Ferrari has done the impossible! They put Kimi Raikkonen in a perfect car and he responded by winning the race and his first ever world title. Kimi achieved the seemingly-impossible in Brazil. He did what he knows best: won the race and Lewis Hamilton and McLaren were left to rue one failure in the entire race. All the permutations and combinations were well documented and Hamilton needed to finish in the top five and then he need not have worried about what happened to the others. But an electrical failure saw him drop 11 places and move to 18th in the first half of the race and lose any realistic chances of winning the title.
It was a scarlet race from that point forth. Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, though, had the perfect race. Ferrari could not have scripted it better. A scorching start put Hamilton in third and Raikkonen into second and the race and title was wide open from there on. Kimi had a flawless race and he took over the lead when Massa went in for his third pit stop. Questions may be raised about the timing of that stop, but it seemed to be more a result of Kimi's pace and skill that he took the top spot ahead of Massa.
For Fernando Alonso, the step-child in this McLaren team, he was very close and it must be heart-breaking for everyone at McLaren to miss out at this stage. Two successive failures will give Ron Dennis (and his team) endless sleepless nights but the fact is that Kimi Raikkonen is world champion.
Drama was rife at Interlagos even in the 68th lap when Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg were engaged in a duel. For a brief while, Kimi and Ferrari would have thought that a crash there could put paid to their hopes, but nothing of the sort transpired and Kimi, a stunned looking Kimi, we may add, went on to clinch the title for the first time in his career.
Lewis Hamilton had the perfect season for 15 races but in the last two, it went completely wrong. Starting from P2, he would have expected nothing less than a podium but he managed only seventh. Yes, he is the runner-up but that was also thanks to the fact that he had one second-place finish more than Fernando Alonso. That is how close it got!
The race as a whole was full of drama with a large number of retirements, but the most shocking was the performance of the Renaults who crashed out and caused a couple of crashes as well! Red Bull had a rather sombre outing, but Williams will be mighty pleased with Nico Rosberg's fourth place finish. BMW were consistent and steady as ever and one can't help but think what a more flamboyant and innovative driver could do with a car as reliable as that.
After the 17th race, Kimi Raikkonen was world champion by just one point. Speaking (and blushing) after the race, Kimi said, "We never thought we can't win. We knew we were in a tough position to win, but it was a good finish in the end. It was good to come back from so far behind and win. And I want to thank the team for coming through the hard times. We had the perfect team."
It was interesting to see Kimi blush and allow a smile in front of the cameras before starting with his signature drawl. He was really stunned as was evident with his talk. But he has said that he will enjoy this for at least the first month! Kimi did attribute the finish to the start and also acknowledged that the Ferrari strategy was to preserve tyres.
Elaborating on the closing stages, he said, "I wasn't 100% sure and if someone ahead of Lewis would have made a mistake, it would have been all over. It took a long time to know where Lewis finished, but it was great to finish like this."
Playing the perfect team-man, Felipe perhaps sacrificed the race. "Unfortunately, I wasn't fighting for the title but I am happy for the team and I am glad to have helped the team to win both titles. I hope it will be me one day, but for now, I am happy for Kimi."
"The track improved a lot since yesterday and in the end the super soft worked very well as opposed to what was being believed before the race," he added speaking about the track.
Alonso, who now gives up the championship, was disappointed with the outcome. "Kimi is the deserving champion? it was an up and down season, but he did well. I needed to score five points, but with Lewis' problem, I knew a Ferrari 1-2 would shut me out. And there were no mistakes from them. I was up with them in the first few laps but they did take good care of tyres and I could not keep up with them after the third lap. I did wish for a problem for them, but it just didn't happen! Nothing we could do."
A philosophical outlook to the season summed up Alonso's feelings: "My problems with the team are no secret and like with every job, there are ups and downs. I had a great, competitive car and I would like to thank McLaren for that."
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