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Lewis Hamilton - F1 World Champion 2008

Lewis Hamilton in the McLaren became the Formula One’s youngest ever World Champion yesterday after finishing in fifth place at the Brazilian Grand Prix in only his second season in the sport.

His rival for the title, Felipe Massa in the Ferrari dominated the race after qualifying in pole position at the Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo.

As the cars lined-up on the grid ready for the start, the heavens opened and the start was delayed for ten-minutes, giving the teams time to decide on their tyre choices.

On the first lap, David Coulthard in the Red Bull was hit up the back sending him into a spin and was then hit by the Williams car of Kazuki Nakajima and was out of the running, a great disappointment for Coulthard on the very last race of his career.

The safety car was deployed until lap four and Giancarlo Fisichella in the Force India is the first man to pit for slick tyres as the track starts to dry out.

Massa was leading the race by nearly a second followed by the impressive Toyota of Jarno Trulli in second place until the Ferrari driver pitted on lap ten for new tyres.

On lap eleven, Trulli, Kimi Raikkonen and Hamilton all pitted, with Hamilton slotting back into the pack in seventh place but passed Trulli on the next lap to move him into sixth.

On lap seventeen, Hamilton passed Fisichella to take fifth place but he was being targeted by Timo Glock in the Toyota as Sebastian Vettel in the Toro Rosso pits from second place.

On the second round of pit stops, Hamilton rejoined in sixth place behind Vettel and Heikki Kovalainen, his team-mate as Raikkonen pits.

Massa retook the lead followed by Vettel, Fenando Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton but Vettel needed to pit again moving Hamilton into fourth place, bearing in mind he only needs to finish in the top five.

In another dramatic twist to the finale, the rain started again with only eight laps of the race remaining and with only four laps to go, Raikkonen and Alonso both pit for intermediate tyres and are quickly followed by Hamilton and Vettel.

Massa came in on the next lap for his intermediates and with only two laps to go, Massa leads followed by Alonso, Raikkonen, Glock, Hamilton and right on his tail, Vettel.

Vettel then amazingly overtakes Hamilton moving him down into sixth place, but on the final lap, Glock seems to lose the pace and Hamilton passes him on the final corner of the final lap to win the championship.

Ferrari won the Constructor’s Championship although not much compensation for the distraught Massa who couldn’t possibly have done anymore.

Here are the results;

Retirements;