Holy shit that was close, closer than a close shave from Charles I’s headsman, but finally, triumphantly, Lewis Hamilton nipped his rain spattered McLaren past Timo Glock on the very last corner at Interlagos to pickpocket fifth place and become the youngest ever Formula One world champion.This was not a day for faint hearts and it began with a heavy shower on the grid which had virtually the entire field (sans Kubica) scrabbling for intermediates and had the watching audience (ie us) muttering darkly about strange portents and bad omens.
A nerve jangling start eventually saw Hamilton settle comfortably into fourth and throughout the race he kept it there or thereabouts while Massa sped off at the front like a man possessed. All seemed to be running to script, but a Grand Prix is an unpredictable as a woman’s mood and the twist in the tail this time was the rain – normally Hamilton’s natural ally – which started to come down as the race reached its denouement.
The fat lady was just about warming up her pipes, when it was all back into the pits for a last set of intermediates as the few laps ticked down like the second hand at an execution. Pushed to within an inch by the impressive Vettel, Hamilton was forced to concede and dropped to sixth place and it looked it had all slipped away from him again.
Yet if there’s one thing sport in general and racing in particular teaches you, it’s to keep going to the end and as we sat there despairing, McLaren were more sanguine having spotted Glock’s dry-shod Toyota sliding around like a newborn lamb on a skating rink. They cut it fine, finer than a treble zero grade sandpaper, but on the last corner Lewis nipped past Glock and through to deserved Championship glory. Ferrari’s garage erupted in premature triumph and then desolation as realisation dawned; Massa was a mass of tears underneath the helmet, but Lewis and Britain’s joy was unconfined at this narrowest of victories. Over the course of a long and rollercoaster-like season he deserved it.
It should be the first of many.
