What a finish!

The F1 season is finally over! And what a great finale it was. Stayed up late in the wee hours to watch the Brazilian GP ... Hamilton went into the race with 4 pts over Alonso and 7 over Raikonnen. It was his race to lose.

Remember Shanghai? When he parked his car in the world's most expensive parking lot ie the pit lane gravel pit?!?! What was he thinking of? A decent finish and the title was his. But that moment of sillyness, losing his head when he could have slowed down more going into the pits, showed a weakness mentally. Can he handle the pressure.

Going into Brazil, I was telling some friends that I expect Alonso to finish strongly in the top three. That's because he has a really cool and mature head on his shoulders, winning 2 championships already. Hamilton will be too eager, and it will be interesting to see if he crumbles under pressure. Raikonnen... 7 pts behind, nah no choice unless the Mclaren blows up. Thus I think Alonso would win, even though I was rooting for Hamilton.

Guess what. He did lose his head once again. Start of race was frantic, Raikonnen got up to 2nd, Hamilton got caught behind a little and let Alonso past. 2-3-4. finish in that order and we have the world's 1st ever rookie F1 champion. but NOOOOO. Turn 4 and you know he wasn't thinking properly again. He's a racer no doubt, wanting to win the title with a victory, but it was barely 1% of the entire race and he didn't need to go on the outside of turn 4. Not very likely. I would say give any driver the chance to finish 4th and win the title and they will snap it up. Perhaps some youthful exuberance from Hamilton? In any case, he ended up 7th I think in the 1st lap.

Of course the electronics problem later didn't help and when he got to the back of the field I knew the title was lost. A brilliant attempt to get into the points got him into 7th , but he was hoping for a miracle (ie a crash from the front runners) to get any chance to win. Ferrari 1-2, so obviously Raikonnen would get no. 1 . Alonso would finish a strong 3, but 1 point short of the title... Raikonnen world champion! Wow. I think the crowd was quite stunned. in the end, the top 3 drivers were separated by 1 point only! Very very close.

In any case, we can judge the drivers by comparing them to their teammates. Hamilton has had a wonderfully successful season and should take heart from his rookie year. Same points as previous world champion is a remarkable achievement. Alonso won't stay in Mclaren, I don't see that happening. Racing is rather pro british if you look at all the key players. he's probably better off joining a non-british team.

Anyway well done to them. a juicy season indeed .... =) next year! (n the night race !!!)