Where did Lewis Hamilton lose a World Championship that he had led for months? Was it at Interlagos yesterday, when he made one of his worst starts to the season and then saw his race and his dreams shattered by a temporary gearbox failure on his car?

Or was it two weeks ago at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai, where Hamilton and his team, McLaren Mercedes, threw away what could have been a title-winning outcome by getting his tyre strategy all wrong, which eventually led to him sliding off the track into the gravel?

That cockup in China left Hamilton, a young master under pressure, with a much harder job to do in Brazil than might have been the case. Although he went into the race at Interlagos as the clear favourite - four points ahead of his team-mate, Fernando Alonso, and a yawning seven clear of Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari – there was no doubt that this was a tough ask for the youngster.

At a packed circuit on a hot early summer’s day in São Paulo yesterday, Hamilton knew that he could not afford any big errors, but the pressure of trying to close out the championship and the feeling perhaps that he had not just the hopes of a nation on his shoulders, but the weight of history, too, might have got to him.

Expert View

The Hamiltons were so unfailingly upbeat that it was fair to wonder if it was an elaborate façade to hide the most colossal despair

Matt Dickinson

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Background

• Hamilton driven to despair in Brazil

• Search for answers gets under way

• Lauda and legends so quick to spot Hamilton greatness

• Champagne on ice after parties crashed

Background

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• The young man will soon have his time

• The Insider - October 22

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In the end, Hamilton’s race was ruined by the gearbox glitch on lap eight when the box went into default mode, selecting neutral, as Hamilton sat helpless in the cockpit, but he had already made life harder for himself than it should have been when he succumbed to the temptation to get involved in a scrap with Alonso.

These were the first seconds of an always tense Grand Prix. Hamilton, who started second on the grid, had already been passed on the outside by Raikkonen at turn one, then the Spaniard, who was trying to defend his World Championship principally against Hamilton, got past the Briton on the inside going through the Senna “Esses”.

At that moment, all the bitterness and anger that has attended the breakdown in relations between these two foes inside McLaren was all too evident as Hamilton tried to fight back in a position, World Championship-wise, that did not require it. Had Hamilton finished fourth behind Alonso in third, the Briton would have won the title by two points. As it was, he ran wide across the grass and then on to a large run-off area and returned to the fray in eighth position.

Hamilton then quickly got past Jarno Trulli, in the Toyota, and Nick Heidfeld, in the BMW, and was running sixth, back in the hunt, when the car let him down and he was suddenly 40 seconds off the pace of the early leader, Felipe Massa, in the Ferrari, and running in eighteenth place. In the GP2 championship last year, we saw how good Hamilton can be when driving through the field after an early setback, but, in Formula One the task is far harder and, although he fought bravely to the end, he could not get to that crucial fifth place and the four precious points that he needed to be king.

Ahead of him, Massa drove an almost faultless race before his adoring home crowd and would certainly have won it had not the championship position required that Raikkonen, who was running second, get by him to clinch the spoils. Ferrari executed this delicate manoeuvre through the second set of pitstops when Raikkonen ran longer and emerged ahead. By this stage, there was nothing that Alonso, a distant third, could do about either the race or his own dreams of emulating Juan Manuel Fangio by becoming only the second driver to win consecutive World Championships with two different manufacturers.

The championship win for Raikkonen came very much against the run of play this year, the Finn having started well with a race victory in Australia, but who then struggled with technical failures and inconsistent driving in the early part of the season.

However, he came good in the closing stages and, with six wins to his name, is a worthy winner, given that his two rivals at McLaren have only four wins apiece. With their technical secrets so sensationally leaked to McLaren this season and with the team having had to rebuild after the retirement of Michael Schumacher last year, this has turned out to be a superb, if unexpected, comeback year for the Scuderia.

It appeared that the scenario change when the FIA set up an inquiry into fuel temperatures in the cars of Nico Rosberg, of Williams, and Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld, of BMW Sauber. However, after the investigation the result was allowed to stand. If the drivers had been penalised points because their fuel was more than ten degrees below the approved temperature, Hamilton could have moved from seventh to fourth in the race, enough to clinch the title.

Raikkonen, who gave an emotional Massa a timely pat on the back during the postrace press conference, said that his excellent start had been critical. “I was side by side with Felipe, but we didn’t want to race too hard,” he said. “It was important we went past Hamilton and in the end he went off [the track]. Then there was perfect teamwork. The team have been great all year and now we’ve finally won it - it’s amazing.”

Alonso was magnanimous in defeat. “Congratulations to Kimi, who did a great championship,” he said. Reflecting on a difficult season, the 26-year-old added: “There have been ups and downs, better moments and worse moments, and I’ve had difficulties. We tried to work as hard as we could and we arrived into the last race of the season with a chance, but it was not quite enough.”

Result from São Paulo

(71 laps): 1, K Raikkonen (Fin, Ferrari) 1hr 28min 15.720sec; 2, F Massa (Br, Ferrari) 1:28:17.213; 3, F Alonso (Sp, McLaren Mercedes) 1:29:12.739; 4, N Rosberg (Ger, Williams Toyota) 1:29:24.560; 5, R Kubica (Pol, BMW Sauber) 1:29:26.677; 6, N Heidfeld (Ger, BMW Sauber) 1:29:27.037; 7, L Hamilton (GB, McLaren Mercedes) 1 lap behind; 8, J Trulli (It, Toyota) 1; 9, D Coulthard (GB, Red Bull Renault) 1; 10, K Nakajima (Japan, Williams Toyota) 1; 11, R Schumacher (Ger, Toyota) 1; 12, T Sato (Japan, Super Aguri Honda) 2; 13, V Liuzzi (It, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari) 2; 14, A Davidson (GB, Super Aguri Honda) 3. Not classified: 15, A Sutil (Ger, Spyker Ferrari) 43 laps completed; 16, R Barrichello (Br, Honda) 40; 17, H Kovalainen (Fin, Renault) 35; 18, S Vettel (Ger, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari) 34; 19, J Button (GB, Honda) 20; 20, M Webber (Aus, Red Bull Renault) 14; 21, S Yamamoto (Japan, Spyker Ferrari) 2; 22, G Fisichella (It, Renault) 2. Fastest Lap: Raikkonen 1min 12.445sec (lap 66).

Qualifying positions: 1, Massa 1min 11.931sec; 2, Hamilton 1:12.082; 3, Raikkonen 1:12.322; 4, Alonso 1:12.356; 5, Webber 1:12.928; 6, Heidfeld 1:13.081; 7, Kubica 1:13.129; 8, Trulli 1:13.195; 9, Coulthard 1:13.272; 10, Rosberg 1:13.477; 11, Barrichello 1:12.932; 12, Fisichella 1:12.968; 13, Vettel 1:13.058; 14, Liuzzi 1:13.251; 15, Schumacher 1:13.315; 16, Button 1:13.469; 17, Kovalainen 1:14.078; 18, Sato 1:14.098; 19, Nakajima 1:14.417; 20, Davidson 1:14.596; 21, Sutil 1:15.217; 22, Yamamoto 1:15.487.

Final Championship positions: Drivers

1, Raikkonen 110pts
2, Hamilton 109
3, Alonso 109
4, Massa 94
5, Heidfeld 61
6, Kubica 39
7, Kovalainen 30
8, Fisichella 21
9, Rosberg 20
10, Coulthard 14
11, A Wurz (Austria, Williams Toyota) 13
12, Webber 10
13, Trulli 8
14, Button 6 = Vettel 6
16, Schumacher 5
17, Sato 4
18, Liuzzi 3
19, Sutil 1

Constructors

1, Ferrari 204; 2, BMW Sauber 101; 3, Renault 51; 4, Williams Toyota 33; 5, Red Bull Renault 24; 6, Toyota 13; 7, Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari 8; 8, Honda 6; 9, Super Aguri Honda 4; 10, Spyker Ferrari 1