Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen won his first Formula One drivers' championship as Lewis Hamilton's bid came to a dramatic end in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Hamilton's attempt to make history by winning the title in his maiden season ended when he finished only seventh. His challenge was ended when problems with his McLaren dropped him to the back of the field early on. His team-mate Fernando Alonso's hopes were dashed as he finished third behind Raikkonen's team-mate Felipe Massa.
Finn Raikkonen, who has won two more races than anyone else this season, won the championship with 110 points, with Alonso and Hamilton tied on 109 points. Hamilton ended the season in second place on countback, with one more second-place race finish than Alonso.

Things started to go wrong for Hamilton from the start. As Massa eased into the lead from pole position, the Englishman was slow away from his second place on the grid, and was passed by Raikkonen before the first corner.
Then, as they entered the first turn, Alonso drew alongside Hamilton on the outside, claiming the inside line and third place as they went into the second part of the chicane.
Hamilton then unwisely and unnecessarily tried to re-pass his team-mate on the outside into the Subida da Lago corner at the end of the back straight. He got onto the slippery outside of the track, and slid off into the run-off area, rejoining in eighth place.

In itself, that error was not enough to end his hopes of becoming champion, but worse was soon to come.

Meanwhile, Spyker's Sakon Yamamoto crashed with Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella on the first lap, and both were forced to retire.
Kovaleinen crashed hard in the 38th lap at the third turn. He was on his feet for several minutes, but later was preventively transported to the medical center.
Two Williams mechanics received minor injuries after Kazuki Nakajima, debuting in F1, failed to hit his pit marks and ran over the mechanics.

Hamilton quickly set about regaining places, but ran into more problems on lap eight, when he slowed almost to a halt as his car slipped out of gear. He did manage to get it going again, but by then had lost more than 40 seconds, and was at the back of the field.

The 22-year-old spent the rest of the afternoon fighting through the field, desperately trying to gain enough places to stop one of his rivals beating him to the world championship.

In an attempt to ease his task, McLaren chose a radical three-stop strategy, the thinking presumably being that with a lighter car he would find it easier to overtake his rivals. The teams have to use both of two types of tyre during the race. And McLaren chose to get the slower, softer tyre out of the way early with a short second stint.
That way, he would be on the faster tyre at the end of the race when nearly all the other drivers were on the slower one.

But the strategy did not pay off.

Hamilton did get up into the points during his third stint but, once Raikkonen assumed the lead after passing Massa during the second pit-stop period, the Englishman needed to finish fifth to stay ahead of the Finn. And although he drove flat out to the end of the race he simply ran out of time.

Alonso's hold on the title he has held for two years ended in a damp squib. The Spaniard was never in contention for victory in a race that was dominated by the Ferraris.
And although he had the edge on everyone else, third place was not enough to stay ahead of Raikkonen in the standings.

Raikkonen said: "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."

It was a bitter result for Hamilton, who had led the standings since May 13 and had been seeking to become the first rookie and the youngest driver to win the title.
It also heralded a miserable end to the year for McLaren, who were removed from the constructors' standings and fined US$100 million after the spy scandal involving Ferrari which is also likely to see Alonso leave the British-based team in 2008.

McLaren boss Ron Dennis said: "At difficult moments like this you just have to have a sporting attitude to the outcome. Lewis has enjoyed phenomenal reliability from his car this year. It was just a default in the gearbox which selected neutral for a period of time but then sorted itself out.
"It was so close, we needed just one car to stop. It's hard to find the right words but I think the whole team has done a great job all year and should be proud of their achievements."

2007 Championship Final Standings:
Drivers table
1. Raikkonen (WC) - 110
2. Hamilton - 109
3. Alonso - 109

Constructors table
1. Ferrari (WC) - 204
2. BMW - 101
3. Renault - 51

[via BBC Sports]