Racing | Formula 1 | 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix — Räikkönen Wins the Title by One Point at Interlagos

On 21 October 2007, Formula 1 arrived at São Paulo’s Autódromo José Carlos Pace with three drivers still able to win the championship. Lewis Hamilton led Fernando Alonso by four points and Kimi Räikkönen by seven. Felipe Massa started the 71-lap Brazilian Grand Prix from pole, with Hamilton second, Räikkönen third and Alonso fourth.

Massa led away, while Räikkönen drew alongside Hamilton and emerged from the Senna S in second. Alonso also passed Hamilton; an attempted response sent Hamilton briefly off the circuit and down to eighth. After recovering to sixth, Hamilton’s McLaren temporarily lost drive on lap eight and slowed to a crawl before restarting. He fell to eighteenth and began another recovery.

Ferrari controlled the race at the front. Räikkönen took the lead during the final pit-stop sequence and won in 1:28:15.270, 1.493 seconds ahead of Massa. Alonso finished third, 57.019 seconds behind; Hamilton recovered to seventh, one lap down. Räikkönen also set the race’s fastest lap, 1:12.445 on lap 66.

The result gave Räikkönen 110 points. Hamilton and Alonso both finished on 109, with Hamilton ranked second on countback. Räikkönen had entered the finale as the outsider and left Interlagos as world champion by one point, completing a Ferrari one-two in both the race and the Drivers’ Championship.

The classification remained under scrutiny after fuel-temperature readings from the BMW Sauber and Williams cars that finished fourth through sixth. The stewards imposed no penalties because the evidence did not establish an infringement with sufficient certainty. On 16 November, the FIA International Court of Appeal declared McLaren’s appeal inadmissible, leaving the Brazilian Grand Prix result and Räikkönen’s title unchanged.

The pin marks Autódromo José Carlos Pace, also known as Interlagos. The 2007 race used the 4.309 km, 15-turn, anti-clockwise Grand Prix circuit introduced in 1999; the venue had been resurfaced before the event. The accompanying route diagram depicts that configuration.

Sources: Formula 1 official race result, starting grid, fastest laps and 2007 Drivers’ standings; Grandprix.com’s contemporary race report; the FIA International Court of Appeal ruling reproduced by Autosport; Motor Sport Magazine’s race database. Image: Will Pittenger, “Autódromo José Carlos Pace (AKA Interlagos) track map,” Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0, a route diagram created in 2009 and used here to show the 1999-present circuit configuration.