In one of the vital dramatic F1 title showdowns within the sport’s historical past, Lewis Hamilton was cruelly denied a maiden championship in simply his rookie season.
On this present day 19 years in the past, the Brazilian Grand Prix marked the ultimate spherical of the season.
Hamilton entered the occasion needing solely fifth place to turn out to be F1’s youngest world champion, solely to observe the title slip away within the house of some chaotic laps at Interlagos.
The McLaren rookie had led the drivers’ championship into the finale, however a troublesome opening lap set the tone for his afternoon.
Hamilton locked up behind Fernando Alonso as he tried to keep away from contact, operating huge and dropping down the order. Worse was to return on lap eight, when his MP4-22 unexpectedly chosen impartial and coasted for round 30 to 40 seconds earlier than the gearbox reset itself, dropping him as little as 18th.
McLaren later insisted the fault stemmed from an inside gearbox default fairly than driver error, although the precise trigger was by no means totally resolved.
The workforce switched Hamilton to an aggressive three-stop technique in an try and salvage the outcome, but it surely left him quick, with the Briton crossing the road seventh. That was not sufficient.
Kimi Raikkonen, who had trailed Hamilton by seven factors heading into the race, used an overcut throughout Ferrari’s second spherical of pit stops to leapfrog teammate Felipe Massa and take victory, snatching the title by a single level.
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What was mentioned?
Hamilton mirrored on a brutal end to his debut season, stating: “It wasn’t an important begin to the race, I locked up behind Fernando principally to keep away from hitting him and went a bit huge.
“I got here again on and was fairly relaxed, I knew that I had the tempo.”
He struck a philosophical tone when assessing the larger image.
“For positive we led the World Championship all the best way to the final race and we had a tricky three weeks, there was nothing we may do. We did the most effective job we may, the workforce did an exceptional job all 12 months.
“The automotive was nice and I actually nonetheless consider that now we have the quickest automotive and I believe we have learnt a lot from this 12 months, we’ll go into subsequent season with our heads excessive and I do know I’ll do even a greater job subsequent 12 months and are available again even stronger.”
Alonso, who completed third, conceded the title belonged to his rival. “The outcome as we speak is after all disappointing however we already knew that it could be troublesome ranging from fourth to win the race and the Championship as we speak.
McLaren subsequently appealed gasoline temperature irregularities on the Williams and BMW Sauber vehicles, a case that would theoretically have handed Hamilton the crown.
The FIA’s Worldwide Court docket of Enchantment threw it out weeks later, with Jean Todt declaring that “a last and determined try to vary the outcome obtained on the observe was rejected.”
