All the details from Brazil

Formula One hailed a new champion at Interlagos on Sunday, but not the one the whole of Britain wanted. Kimi Raikkonen, seemingly out of the title race three weeks, ended the season where he began it eight long and turbulent months ago with a triumphant drive to victory in Brazil, taking his sixth win of the year and, at the very last gasp, his first world title.

Lewis Hamilton’s gallant drive back through the field after a traumatic start will live long in the memory. Like the beaten rugby world cup finalists, he gave everything, but he could not reach the fifth place he needed to overhaul Raikkonen in the three-way race for the world title. There will be plenty more years for the 22-year-old, but this will be a bitter blow to his confidence and to McLaren, who have ended a torrid season with nothing. Raikkonen ended an extraordinary championship on 110 points, one point clear of Hamilton and Alonso.

The race was beautifully engineered by Ferrari, superbly driven by both Felipe Massa and Raikkonen. As Massa pulled in for the second pit stop, the Finn had a clear road ahead of him to make up three seconds before his own pitstop. The calculations were perfect, Raikkonen exiting the pitlane as his teammate headed down the backstraight, cementing his lead to three seconds and relegating both Alonso and Hamilton to also rans in the title race.

Hamilton now needed to reach fifth and the laps were running out. In one last gamble, he pitted for the third time. But, to no avail and he could make no headway on Heidfeld ahead of him.

It was a compelling sporting drama set in a wonderful, decrepid, old amphitheatre. If there is a place to win a championship, to confirm a legend, as Alonso knows well enough, it is here 750 metres above sea level where the city of Ayrton Senna flits in the haze of a sultry Sunday afternoon and the air is full of ghosts.

Hamilton went into the final grand prix of the season knowing that a second place finish would be enough to rewrite history, whatever his rivals did. His qualifying lap on Saturday, quick and controlled, confirmed what he had been saying all week about not feeling the pressure. There was even a suspicion that he allowed Massa to take pole ahead of him, preferring to have the Brazilian home favourite - and a good friend - ahead of him rather than chasing him for the afternoon. The one proviso was that he held his grid position off the startline and did not allow Raikkonen to slip through before the first corner, bequeathing control to the Scuderia.

The mood of the two McLaren-Mercedes drivers could not have been different when they faced the press for their traditional post-qualifying conference in the McLaren corporate hospitality unit on Saturday. Hamilton said how much he was enjoying the buzz of his first visit to Interlagos; Alonso, in contrast, was in a dark humour, sensing that his last chance of putting pressure on his potential successor as world champion had all but gone. The Spaniard only needed to cast his mind back two weeks when he declared the race for the championship “99 per cent over” only for Hamilton to slide into the gravel to revive his spirits.

The consensus among the drivers is that the combination of a newly laid track at Interlagos and a tract temperature touching 60 degrees would put a premium on preserving tyres, another equation for the British driver to balance. At least, for Hamilton’s sake, there was no fear of rain and no gravel trap near the pitlane.

Before the start, the drivers were wrapped in cold wet towels like boxers before a fight, all except Hamilton, who seemed cool enough in the 36 degree heat. But the start could not have gone worse for the world championship leader as Raikkonen barrelled past him off the start and Alonso also muscled past, leaving Hamilton with nowhere to go but the run-off area. By the time he had collected his car, Hamilton was down in eighth just behind Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica.

By the third lap he had climbed a place to seventh and after one abortive and nearly terminal attempt to take Heidfeld, slipped inside the Sauber driver at the start of lap 6 to earn the point that made him world champion on the road. The move only prefaced further drama as Hamilton slowed almost to a stop, his race seemingly over after less than a quarter distance. It later transpired the problem was his gearbox, which went into neutral for a time and then reset himself. But then, incredibly, he picked up speed again and powered across the line without going into the pits. Salvaging his title now required a long and arduous drive through the field from 18th to claim enough points to win the title. He scythed swiftly past Adrian Sutil and Ralph Schumacher, disposed of Anthony Davidson and Takima Sato with equal spirit to rise to 11th by lap 17. But he was not gaining on Alonso or the leading Ferraris, who by now had opened up a healthy 10 second lead at the head of the race.

When Robert Kubica pushed past Alonso into third, Raikkonen was champion on the road in second. But Hamilton’s charge continued up to ninth when he pitted for the second time, earlier than any other driver. He left the pitlane still in ninth but 30 seconds behind Coulthard in the final championship place, which he took when the British driver had his second pitstop. Hard though he charged, Hamilton had to content himself with an astonishing debut season. His mistake in China cost him the title not his epic drive here. If he wins the title next year, he will still be the youngest world champion in history.