Hamilton beaten to world title

Last Modified: 21 Oct 2007
By: Channel 4 News

British driver Lewis Hamilton has been pipped to the Formula One world title by Kimi Raikkonen.

Hamilton finished seventh in the Brazilian Grand Prix after making a disastrous start.

He started in second place on the grid, but he was overtaken by his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso at the first bend.

Then Hamilton dropped to eighth before the end of the first lap when he made a mistake and ran wide on a bend.

A gearbox problem forced him to drop to 18th place, when fifth place would have been good enough to win the drivers championship.

Instead, Raikkonen passed his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa and earned the full ten points for winning the race, leaving him one point ahead of Hamilton and defending champion Alonso.

Hamilton's father Anthony said: "Things are sent to try you, and we are going to be positive, we are going to come back next year."

Meanwhile, McLaren team principal 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."