OMG, Speechless, goosebumps....
Been a supporter of F1 since 2000....and last night was the defining moment of my life as FANatic...
Kimi Raikkonen, who just turned 28 on Wednesday 24/10, won the Formula1 World Driver's Championship by ONE POINT!!
Lewis Hamilton has been leading the points for almost the entire season with Fernando Alonso and Kimi lagging far behind at points of the season.
Kimi needed to win the final race in Brazil with Alonso taking 3rd or lower and Hamilton 6th or lower to claim his first driver's title.
And win he did! Starting in 3rd behind Masa and Hamilton, the Ferrari duo made the perfect start into Senna S and kept Hamilton behind. This allowed Alonso to be wheel-to-wheel to Hamilton by turn 2 and Alonso managed to pass Hamilton and forcing Hamilton to make a mistake a turn 4. Hamilton's Mclaren had a technical glitch where it went into Neutral gear for 40sec, dropping him back of the field.
THE DREAM had begun!!!!!! Though the positions looked right for a Kimi win, it was too early to dismiss Hamilton as he 'only' needed to fight his way back up the field to get into 5th place to win the crown. This is entirely within his grasp as he made good progress until Mclaern brought him into the pits for his first pit stops. The opted for soft tyres and the stop last only ~6s!!!!! This meant that they were gambling on catching up the field with a light car BUT with THREE pitstops!!!! (Compare to the likely 2 pitstops by Ferrari). By the 2nd Hamilton pitstop, it was definite that they were going for the 3rd stop after!!! With most of the field just heading for 2 stops, KIMI was on his way.....
Kimi was lagging behind Massa until the 2nd round of pitstops, where Ferrari strategy + Kimi's awesome pace saw Ferrari pull off a 'textbook-overtaking' manuvoure of switching place with the Massa for the lead!! It was nail-bitting to the finish as Hamilton MUST not reach the 5th position. Hamilton did claw up to 7th place with ~10laps remaining. It seems difficult for him to catch the next driver as there was a 16sec gap. But cars can easily retire in a F1 race. So it was holding-of-breath for the final leg of the race!!
And with one lap remainig, I had my big big (~2mX1m) Ferrari flag waving in my room! Yes, it was mad..as I said...the defining moment in 7 yrs.... as Kimi crosses the line.....*WOOT*!!! But it wasn't over yet, one needs all the cars until Hamilton (lying 7th) to cross the chequered flag, else Hamilton could will steal the crown...and when Kubica and Heidfeld crossed the line in 5th/6th place...it was ALL OVER!!!!!
KIMI WINS!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!
I've been a fan of his for a few years, especially during 2005 when he had a shot at the title and showed true talent in his Mclaren then. The defining race that year was at Suzuka: Starting last, he fought his way up the field......and with 5-6laps remaining..he was 2nd with Fisi leading the race with several seconds...and...the unlikelyhood of Kimi catching up....man....he did!! And overtook Fisi in style on the OUTSIDE line on the penultimate lap on the start-finish straight.... That poster is still on my wall.....
WOOT!!!
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