MOTORSPORT: Iceman cometh as gremlin strikes Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton's fairytale turned into a nightmare in Sao Paulo early this morning and he and McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso both wound up a point behind Raikkonen. But there is a probe into the fuel in the Williams-Toyota of Nico Rosberg and the BMW-Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld.

If that trio are disqualified Hamilton will move up from seventh place in the Brazilian GP to fourth -- and would take the title Raikkonen and Ferrari are celebrating.

Raikkonen's race engineer is Chris Dyer (pictured) from near Bendigo in Victoria, who started his career in motorsport tinkering with computers for the Holden Racing Team in the early 1990s. He later worked for Arrows in F1 before joining Ferrari, where he was associated with Michael Schumacher through much of the German's success.

It was Dyer who television viewers heard on the Brazilian race telecast this morning telling Raikkonen that, having done the maths with Alonso finishing third and Hamilton seventh, he was world champion.

The Finnish Iceman was the outsider, having gone into this final race 7pts behind Hamilton, but the Ferraris had the edge on the McLarens in the race.

Alonso was almost a minute behind them at the finish, while Hamilton (having started alongside Massa on the front row, dropped to eighth on the opening lap and 18th a handful of laps later as he grabbled with the scrambled technology in his car) wound up a lap down.

It looked to us as though Felipe Massa could have won his home race for the second straight year in the other Ferrari, but Ferrari team chief Jean Todt and his crew executed a seamless transfer of the race leadership to Raikkonen during the last round of pitstops.

Had it been McLaren there would now be an investigation into the use of 'team orders', but as it was Ferrari there won't even be a query. Yet had Massa and Raikkonen changed order Alonso would have been world champion for the third straight year.

Make no mistake, though, Raikkonen is a deserved world champion.

He has won six GPs this year -- 50 per cent more than either of his McLaren rivals, and twice as many as teammate, Massa.

After seven rounds of the championship Raikkonen trailed Hamilton by 26 points. Even after the Japanese GP four weeks ago he was still 17 points in arrears. He has come from the clouds (and without any of the rain anticipated earlier last week for the race weekend at the Interlagos circuit).

As harsh as fate has turned out to be for Hamilton today, a world title for Raikkonen is compensation for those that he missed out on with McLaren in 2003 and 2005.

He moved to Ferrari this year to fill seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher's shoes, with an expectation from the outside that Massa, already established in the sport's most famous team, had a better chance of becoming world champ.

Raikkonen's fightback has proven wrong the doubters, like us, who queried whether he could put it all together to emulate his world champion countrymen Keke Rosberg (1982) and Mika Hakkinen (1998-99).

Still, it is an unbelievable outcome that, having had the dominant cars most of the year and the two most consistent drivers, McLaren ends up with neither the constructors' nor the drivers' world title. Indeed, it is now eight years since this mighty team has claimed either.

The teams title went when McLaren was stripped of all its points over the 'Spygate' scandal involving leaked Ferrari secrets. The McLaren crew crafted their own trophy for McLaren principal Ron Dennis to signify the teams' trophy they knew should have been theirs.

While it was the major electronics/gearbox problem in the opening laps at Interlagos that ultimately has cost Hamilton the honor of becoming F1's first black world champion, its youngest too, and the first rookie champion since 1950, it will be McLaren's decision to leave him out on the track in Shanghai two weeks ago on worn tyres that denied him. Hamilton could, and should, have had it in the bag in China.

At least the McLaren camp, so often seen as so arrogant, took its bitter pill today with good grace.

"At difficult moments like this you just have to have a sporting attitude," Ron Dennis said.

And Hamilton added: "There was nothing we could do. We did the best job we could. Who'd have thought I'd be ranked number two in my first year of F1?"

Dennis said the cause of Hamilton's problem was not yet known, but the gearbox had gone into default mode and selected neutral.

"A kick in the teeth is the wrong expression -- that imparts a belief that someone did something to us, and no one's done anything to us. We basically did it to ourselves. We didn't have the perfection that we were striving for.

"It was so close. We needed just one car [Ferrari] to stop and [Alonso] would have been champion.

Alonso, too, although clearly unhappy in the McLaren environment, was generous in his congratulation of Raikkonen and added: "I finished one point behind the champion, so in that aspect I think it has been a very positive season. Outside the car, for sure, we have had some difficulties this year but I think this is normal in all the jobs."

Hamilton's father, Anthony, perhaps spoke best of all.

"None of us is in pain," he said. "We feel great [they are words we are sure Ron Dennis could not have mouthed!]. We've just had one of the most fantastic F1 seasons ever."

Yes, indeed.

F1 will never have the consistent quality of racing of NASCAR or even our Aussie V8 Supercars but it is a survival-of-the-fittest (and richest) formula rather than a parity category. Yet this has been one of the best F1 seasons, especially as for most of the year there were four drivers in contention for the title, and it was made all the more compelling by the off-track events, especially the US$100 million fine on McLaren over 'Spygate'.

It is in that off-track arena that F1 has no peer in motorsport. The two hours, often less, of each race are almost incidental to everything else that goes on in the weird, intriguing, addictive world that is F1.

Raikkonen has won the title on the track, and that's the way it should be. But, in a very big sense, his success is no favor to the sport. While he showed his excitement in the cockpit after crossing the finish line, on the podium and at the post-race press conference he was pretty much as dull as ever.

He uttered more words than usual in the interview, but all pretty bland.

Mika Hakkinen was seen as monosyllabic, but he seems positively verbose in comparison with Raikkonen.

Hamilton would have been a Godsend as champion. So young, so fresh, so vibrant, and so eloquent – a dream 'ambassador' for GP racing. Literally, a Tiger Woods for motorsport.

Before the Interlagos race F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who clearly wanted a Hamilton title, was even lamenting that the youngster wasn't Muslim, as a way to open even more doors to a new audience.

It will be fascinating now to see how long it takes Hamilton to become world champion. Although he is assured of a long career, he might never have as good a chance again.

McLaren's 2008 car will have to be okayed to the nth degree by the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) after 'Spygate' to ensure it has not benefited from the leaked Ferrari dossier.

So many other factors will come into play too. There will be rule changes next season, other teams could improve massively, and other talents emerge -- not just Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica and Sebastien Vettel.

Yet -- and we may well be in the minority here but are not being overly patriotic -- this has been an excellent season by Webber. He outqualified Red Bull teammate David Coulthard at 15 of the 17 GPs.

Webber is most unlucky that Coulthard scored four more points and finished two places ahead of him in the championship.

Again in Brazil it was the car that let Webber down. He explained it as a disconnect between the engine and the gearbox. Webber had qualified fifth at Interlagos, headed only by the season's four top drivers in terms of championship points and in the four best cars.

Among the 17 behind Webber were the two BMW-Saubers, the Williams-Toyotas, and the Hondas and Toyotas.

The performance of the Japanese factory teams this year has been woeful. Absolutely disgraceful… Just 19 points between them.

The severity of it hit home when the commentator made the point as Barrichello retired in a pall of smoke that this is the first season in 15 years in F1 that he has not scored a world championship point. And points these days are awarded down to eighth place.

Barrichello is a man who might have won a world title at Ferrari (had he not had to play second fiddle to Michael Schumacher) while Honda's other driver is Jenson Button, whose car also expired in Brazil. He, too, is much better than his equipment has allowed him to show.

Commendable as it was for Honda to adopt a climate-friendly color scheme this year, it would have been much better concentrating on making F1 cars that ran fast and strong. It is tragic to see Honda, which was such a benchmark in F1 in its days with McLaren, sink to such depths.

Toyota has never known success in motor racing's premier division, and the way it's going it never will. Its spending has, at various times, been reputed to have been as big, even bigger, than McLaren or Ferrari. Perhaps there ought to be a relegation system in F1, so that outfits that perform as badly as these have are sent away to lift their game and qualify for re-entry.

Although Webber's Red Bull team is yet to achieve much either, at least we have seen genuine signs in the second half of this season that it is going places. Perhaps next year the package of another Adrian Newey chassis and Renault engine will produce a fast, reliable car for Webber to get some decent finishes.

It looks now as though Prodrive's hopes of fielding 'customer' McLaren-Mercedes cars as the 12th entrant have been dashed for 2008. Williams, in particular, remain vehemently opposed to the 'customer car' idea.

There are big issues involved, especially the division of the F1 prizemoney pool, but wouldn't two more McLarens make for a better show than the Hondas and Toyotas have this year?

Formula 1 drivers championship final points after 17 rounds: Kimi Raikkonen 110, Lewis Hamilton 109, Fernando Alonso 109, Felipe Massa 94, Nick Heidfeld 61, Robert Kubica 39, Heikki Kovalainen 30, Giancarlo Fisichella 21, Nico Rosberg 20, David Coulthard 14, Alexander Wurz 13, Mark Webber 10, Jarno Trulli 8, Sebastian Vettel 6, Jenson Button 6, Ralf Schumacher 5, Takuma Sato 4, Vitantonio Liuzzi 3, Adrian Sutil 1.

F1 constructors' championship final points: Ferrari 204, BMW-Sauber 101, Renault 51, Williams-Toyota 33, Red Bull-Renault 24, Toyota 13, Toro Rosso-Ferrari 8, Honda 6, Super Aguri-Honda 4, Spyker-Ferrari 1.

The Queensland government has been on the defensive over the event as the reality dawns on an increasing number of watchers (ie: observers, rather than spectators) that all is not what it seems or is portrayed as with this event.

It is undoubtedly a great south-east Queensland carnival, and the combination of an international open-wheeler category and the V8 Supercars, along with support races and other entertainment, make it an excellent package. But we pointed out a week ago that the interest in the Champ Car race back in its home market, the US, is miniscule --with an average of about only 125,000 households viewing it on cable TV the past five years.

What evidence is there that the rest of the world is taking much notice?

Yet new Queensland premier Anna Bligh said during a pitlane stroll during the weekend: "It's Champ Cars that put us (Gold Coast) on the world stage."

That is utter nonsense, and Ms Bligh will end up digging herself a big hole if she persists with that line. She will only be inviting the presentation of further evidence to the contrary, which could prove increasingly embarrassing in light of her government's contribution of around $12 million to the event each year.

There are even big question marks again over whether Champ Car will survive beyond the remaining round of this year's series in Mexico on November 11.

Frenchman Sebastien Bourdais wrapped up his fourth straight series title yesterday, in the process becoming the first driver to have won the Gold Coast round twice in its 17-year history. He beat home Englishman Justin Wilson, Brazilian Bruno Junqueira, Dutchman Robert Doornbos, and two other Frenchmen -- Simon Pagenaud and Nelson Phillipe.

For the second year fans went away disappointed that Toowoomba's Will Power was unable to convert pole position into victory.

Power lasted just 18 laps.

"In the first stint we had to pit under yellow, all the cars were compressed, there was a lot of mayhem in the pitlane," Power said.

"Unfortunately I got sent off early. Just a simple mistake -- the guy lifted the lollypop and sent us into another car, which bent the steering arm, and then we were on the back foot. From that point on, the steering wasn't straight."

"The suspension was slightly bent, so the car wasn't behaving exactly how it should. Then trying to charge back through the field, I got a run on Katherine Legge. I guess the car stepped out a little bit and grabbed her back wheel and threw me into the wall.

"It was a disappointing day -- the same as last year, we have the car, had everything in place to win the race, but just bad luck.

Champ Car points after 13 of 14 rounds: Sebastien Bourdais 332, Justin Wilson 270, Robert Doornbos 262, Will Power 234, Graham Rahal 220, Neel Jani 218, Bruno Junqueira 216, Simon Pagenaud 213, Oriol Servia 212, Alex Tagliani 197.

Tander was the class of the Holden drivers at Indy, and Whincup the stand-out among the Ford men. A welcome change to see Russell Ingall and Jason Richards back on the podium with round winner Tander, and Steven Richards winning the final race -- some consolation for the Bathurst victory that got away from him and Mark Winterbottom two weeks earlier.

Most pleasing to us was the amount of fight and overtaking in the V8 ranks, especially by Tander and Whincup. We remember the early days of touring cars at Indy when drivers were reluctant to race too hard because of the damage the nearby concrete walls could inflict.

Admittedly the races were non-championship in those days, so there wasn't a lot of incentive to risk big repair bills.

Tander now trails Whincup by just nine points in the title chase, with Craig Lowndes third and Rick Kelly fourth -- and just 35 points covering the four of them. Tander is stiff not to have won a championship already and fancies his chances.

"At the next two rounds (Bahrain and Tasmania) we won four of the six races last year, so we are going to tracks we are traditionally good on," Tander said.

Now that most other championships have ended, or are close to doing so, the V8 Supercars should have pretty much a monopoly on the attention of fans. It's a pity for Australian fans that they virtually go out of sight in Bahrain now, but then it will be on to Tasmania and finally Phillip Island.

V8 Supercar Championship Series points after 11 of 14 rounds: Jamie Whincup 501, Garth Tander 492, Craig Lowndes 473, Rick Kelly 466, Todd Kelly 324, Steven Richards 299, Mark Skaife 283, Mark Winterbottom 271, Russell Ingall 263, Will Davison 257, James Courtney 257, Steven Johnson 221, Greg Murphy 208, Jason Richards 193, Lee Holdsworth 175.

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