Hamilton wins F1 title in thrilling finish

Published 4:00 am Monday, November 3, 2008

SAO PAULO, Brazil — Lewis Hamilton became Formula One’s youngest champion on Sunday, making a last-lap pass to finish fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix and win the title by one point over Felipe Massa.

Ferrari driver Massa won the race in front of his home crowd, but it wasn’t enough to erase the seven-point lead Hamilton held entering the season-ending race.

“I am speechless,” Hamilton said after the race. “It’s been a long journey in which I had the support of many people. My team did a fantastic job during the entire year and we sacrificed ourselves a lot. I am happy for having achieved this for all of us.”

Just one year after Hamilton lost the title by one point after entering the final race with a seven-point lead over eventual champion Kimi Raikkonen, the 23-year-old McLaren driver passed Toyota’s Timo Glock on the last lap to win the championship. Fernando Alonso was 24 when he won the title for Renault in 2005.

Hamilton fell to sixth place after being overtaken by Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel with two laps to go. After Vettel passed Glock, Hamilton also moved up one spot and finished the season with 98 points.

Alonso was second for Renault at the 2.6-mile Interlagos track, and defending champion Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari took third. Vettel was fourth.

“Unfortunately we missed by one point, but that’s racing,” said Massa, who was also seeking his first F1 title. “We need to be proud. The race was just perfect, we did everything just fantastically.”

Hamilton, the first British F1 champion since Damon Hill in 1996, was sixth until the final turn, but Glock’s car was still on dry tires. That forced him to slow in the pouring rain, allowing Hamilton to make his move.

“It was just impossible on the last lap,” Glock said. “I was fighting as hard as I could but it was so difficult to just keep the car on the track and I lost positions right at the end of the lap.”

Hamilton said he crossed the finish line not knowing whether he had won the championship.

“I was shouting, ‘Did I win? Did I win?’ ” Hamilton said. “Then they told me when I was on the corner and I was ecstatic. It’s a dream.”

Massa, who started from the pole position and was trying to become the first Brazilian champion to win the F1 title since Ayrton Senna in 1991, wept profusely on the podium. He said he didn’t know the final result until told on the team radio on the backstretch.