On October 21, 2007, Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen overtook Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso, to seal the Formula One Drivers’ World Championship title for the first-time in his career at the Brazilian GP. In one of the closest finishes to a drivers’ world championship in the final race of the season in Sau Paulo, Kimi Raikkonen finished one point ahead of McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton and the latter’s teammate Fernando Alonso in the final standings with 110 points after winning the Brazilian GP ahead of Felipe Massa.
Starting the Brazilian GP, the final race of the 2007 season in third place on a grid, Kimi Raikkonen was behind teammate Felipe Massa in pole position and Lewis Hamilton, who was on the front road of the grid. During the first lap itself, Raikkonen successfully passed Hamilton in the first corner. After that, Hamilton ran wide in the first lap, to fall behind in eighth position. The 22-year-old, who was looking to become the youngest F1 driver to win the world championship title, had his McLaren dramatically slow down during the eighth lap due to a malfunction, which led to him getting relegated to 18th place.
We didn’t give up…: Kimi Raikkonen said after F1 Drivers’ World Championship title win
Lewis Hamilton managed to resurrect his race at the Interlagos circuit, finishing in seventh place, but it wasn’t enough for him to win the drivers’ world championship title despite being 17 points ahead in the standings two races ago. It’s because during the latter stages of the Brazilian GP, Felipe Massa, who was in a lead for most of the race, followed the pit-stop strategy from Ferrari, which allowed Kimi Raikkonen to finished ahead of him, taking the chequered flag by a margin of 1.4 seconds, to lay claim to the Formula One Drivers’ World Championship title.
After winning the Brazilian GP and the driver’s world championship title, Kimi Raikkonen acknowledged the efforts of everyone at Ferrari, including his teammate Felipe Massa. He mentioned that the team were very close knit, and worked hard to achieve the title. Raikkonen was quoted as saying after the final race of the 2007 season, as per the Independent, “We were not in the strongest position at some points of the season but we always believed we could recover and do a better job than the others. Even in the hard times we stuck together and we didn’t give up. Even from a long way behind we didn’t give up. We worked very hard and Felipe helped too. The team has been very close together.”
