The Brazilian Grand Prix was proof that Formula One can be the most exciting sport in the world. The stunning rain soaked conclusion to the race was as intense as anything else ever witnessed in F1 history. There were 18,381 corners of competitive racing in 2008 and the World Championship was not decided until an overtaking manoeuvre on the very last one of them. It is a scenario the sport has never seen before and will likely never see again.
The World Championship has gone down to the last Grand Prix of the season on 24 other occasions since 1950, but few of those other classic events can match the tension and drama of those final three laps at Interlagos.
Hamilton looked set to claim his first title in the dying stages of the race. He did everything right all weekend and kept his head together when it mattered the most.
His second Q3 lap on Saturday, under enormous pressure following a scrappy first run, was brilliant. He started the Grand Prix well in the damp conditions and took the first corner nice and easy to steer clear any potential madness. He stayed out of trouble and avoided any risks with dry tyres when the pitstops loomed. There was plenty of patience on display as he passed Giancarlo Fisichella, and he knew not to get aggressive with Sebastian Vettel.
The culmination of his efforts resulted in a solid fourth position with just a few laps remaining.
However, it just wasn’t meant to be easy for Lewis. Mother Nature is seemingly a Formula One fan and wanted a thrilling conclusion so the rain started falling and the Grand Prix was turned upside down.
Vettel had no reason to be cautious once the heavens opened and blasted past Hamilton after they stopped for intermediates. Lewis had already forfeited a position to Timo Glock who stayed out on dry tyres, and all of a sudden the title was slipping out of his fingers.
Again.
I cannot begin to imagine what was going through Hamilton’s head in the final few laps that he spent trailing Vettel. He said later that his heart was in his mouth and it must have been an awful, helpless feeling inside the car. Lewis might even have let his mind wander back to the disappointment he experienced at the same race last year, which would have been enough to make him feel sick.
It must have been tempting for Lewis to throw his McLaren at Vettel somewhere on the final lap in a desperate late bid for fifth place. If the championship was beyond reach it might have been worth launching himself at the Toro Rosso in the hope that enough wheels would stay attached to his car to drag him across the finish line.
It needn’t come to that as Vettel was not Hamilton’s main target.
McLaren CEO, Martin Whitmarsh, says that Hamilton was told to ignore the Toro Rosso and focus on Glock during the final laps. That’s a very brave call because McLaren would only have been confident that Lewis could catch Timo partway around the last lap, at which point Massa had already seen the chequered flag. A GPS animation on a Brazilian sporting website shows the Toyota was still a long way ahead of Hamilton until he reached the tight hairpins in the second sector. Whitmarsh said “Obviously we told Lewis, don’t worry about Vettel, Glock’s on dry tyres, you are going to find him in that last lap, but you know, until you do it, you haven’t done it.”
The suggestion that Glock intentionally slowed to allow Hamilton by is utter nonsense. Jarno Trulli was the only other man out there on dry tyres and his laptimes were near identical to Glock’s, suggesting the track was simply too wet for their rubber to be of any use. Timo himself said “I really don’t know where Lewis overtook me because four cars passed me left and right, left and right. I was just concentrating to keep the car on the track. That was the only way. To handover and help Lewis or help Felipe, definitely not.”
The tension of the final minutes and the sprint up the hill towards the chequered flag was unbelievable, although last lap dramas are not new in F1 title deciders.
Sir Jack Brabham needed fourth place in the 1959 United States Grand Prix to seal the World Championship but ran out of fuel as his leading car exited the final corner. He dropped off the podium but was three laps ahead of the driver in fifth place so his fourth position was always guaranteed. This didn’t stop him from pushing his car over the finish line just to make sure of it.
The 1976 title fight also went down to the closing minutes and was only decided in James Hunt’s favour when he passed two cars on the penultimate lap.
However the best comparison to Sunday’s race came 44 years ago.
John Surtees won the 1964 World Championship on the last lap of the season in a thrilling Grand Prix filled with drama. On that occasion Surtees in the Ferrari had to overcome both Graham Hill and Jim Clark to win the title, and looked unlikely to emerge victorious in the late stages of the Mexican GP.
Hill was controversially taken out of the race by Surtees’ teammate, Lorenzo Bandini, but still had a chance of becoming World Champion depending on where the others finished.
Jim Clark was leading at the beginning of the final lap and the win would have been enough to secure the Scotsman his second title. However his Lotus was leaking oil and this was slowly robbing the engine of power. Clark’s championship challenge disintegrated when Bruce McLaren swept through into the lead.
This development put the crown back in Graham Hill’s possession, but before Clark’s Lotus could struggle home onto the podium it seized up and crawled to a halt.
This last lap drama promoted Surtees into third place, but even with Hill and Clark on the sidelines he still had to gain one more position to win the title.
The former motorcycle champ was in luck because the car ahead of him was the sister Ferrari of Bandini who moved aside at the very end of the final lap to give Surtees second place and the World Championship.
The 1964 finale might have had just as much late drama as yesterday’s race, but it’s difficult to consider it as exciting because it wasn’t beamed live to 400 million TV viewers whilst being played out in front of the title protagonists’ passionate home crowd.
If only John Surtees was Mexican!
The mood in the Brazilian grandstands matched the weather. No-one will ever get closer to a World Championship without actually winning it than Felipe Massa did. He lost the title halfway around his parade lap and that must be a bitter pill to swallow. As Felipe stopped the Ferrari in Parc Ferme it all started to sink in and he burst into tears. All of the energy and emotion that had built up inside him continued to show on the podium and Massa thanked the crowd for their vocal support with his hand on his heart.
You couldn’t help but feel sorry and embarrassed for his family who had initially thought Felipe was champion. They were joined in celebration by Ferrari’s chief press officer, and some may have felt that was a lesson in karma given that he cheered so fervently when Massa clashed with Hamilton at Fuji.
Sadly, there can only be one winner, and on this occasion it was Hamilton.
The spectacular Grand Prix makes it harder to stomach the fact that Brazil has lost its slot as the final race on the F1 calendar. Regardless of Massa’s involvement in the title decider, Interlagos was always going to be the perfect venue to finish the season. The circuit is spectacular and the fans are deeply passionate about the sport. Anyone who thinks that Brazilians don’t know how to have a great time is strongly mistaken and it’s always special to finish on a high note.
I suspect Abu Dhabi will be a real anti climax next year.
That is unless the World Championship is decided within sight of the chequered flag. However, I wouldn’t expect us to see that ever again.
It really was a once-in-a-lifetime moment.