As seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton makes the switch from Mercedes AMG to Ferrari with hope to achieve his eighth title, let’s take a deep dive into the last time his new team won a Driver’s Championship.
Taking us back to 2007, the season closed in Brazil, held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Sāo Paulo, on the 21st October. The 71-lap race was the 17th and final race of the 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship.
A 22-year-old Lewis Hamilton, at the time, was racing for McLaren alongside Fernando Alonso and up against Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa. In Hamilton’s rookie season leading up to Brazil, he won four Grand Prix and set several records, posing to be a real championship contender and competition to Räikkönen.
Practice
Kimi Räikkönen led the first practice in the rainy session on Friday, and the Ferrari drivers finished first on the leaderboard. The track became better with time, as Lewis Hamilton led McLaren to a 1-2 finish in the second practice session. For violating a tire rule, stewards punished McLaren, Honda, and Super Aguri €15,000 apiece. Jenson Button, Takuma Sato, and Lewis Hamilton all utilised two pairs of wet tires, more than the one allowed for the first practice. To prevent getting an edge, each driver also had to give up one pair of wet tires.
Qualifying
The two Spykers, Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto, as well as the two Super Aguris, Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson, were eliminated in the first qualifying session. Kazuki Nakajima, who was making his Williams debut in place of the retiring Alexander Wurz, was also eliminated. Heikki Kovalainen drove the Renault as well. Along with Giancarlo Fisichella in his final race for Renault and Ralf Schumacher in his final race for Toyota, the two Hondas driven by Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button, as well as the two Toro Rossos driven by Sebastian Vettel and Vitantonio Liuzzi, went out in Q2.
Nico Rosberg qualified on the fifth row, with David Coulthard of Red Bull, and finished in the top 10 for Williams. They positioned themselves directly behind Robert Kubica’s BMW Sauber and Jarno Trulli’s Toyota.
In the second Red Bull, Mark Webber finished fifth, and Kubica’s teammate Nick Heidfeld finished sixth. With Drivers’ Championship leader Lewis Hamilton ahead of Fernando Alonso, McLaren finished in second and fourth place. Hamilton broke the record for the most front row starts in a rookie season with his tenth start. Felipe Massa, a teammate from Ferrari, claimed the seventh pole position of his career at his home Grand Prix, while Kimi Räikkönen, another contender for the title, qualified third.
Race
Only 21 cars lined up on the grid, because of problems on the Spyker of Adrian Sutil, who started the race from the pit lane. At the start, the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen were fastest, with the Finn passing Lewis Hamilton on the outside.
Liuzzi had to go into the pits for repairs after losing his front wing on the opening lap as well. When Fisichella skidded off the track in the first circuit of the second lap, Sakon Yamamoto struck him from behind as he was getting back on the track. Rubens Barrichello received a drive-through penalty for jumping the start.
After suffering a gear box problem early in the race, by going slowly for about 30 seconds, Hamilton managed to reset the computer of his car to get it going again: he was in 18th place by then, and with the Ferraris pulling away he needed at the very least seventh place but more likely fifth place to clinch the World Championship.
Massa was ahead of Räikkönen by 3.3 seconds after the first round of pit stops, with Alonso trailing him by 17 seconds. Hamilton finished in 13th place, 50 seconds behind Massa and also behind Barrichello. When Nakajima made his first pit stop on lap 32, he injured two technicians when he veered wide while getting into his stand. They were not seriously hurt.
Hamilton was overtaken by Räikkönen and Massa, who led by a wide margin over Alonso in the closing circuits. Heidfeld and Rosberg both ran wide as Rosberg attempted to pass him on the first turn on lap 61. Kubica overtook both to grab fourth position, while Rosberg passed Heidfeld. Rosberg attempted a similar manoeuvre on lap 70 and passed Kubica. Trulli’s pit stop put Hamilton in seventh place, but it was insufficient because he needed to finish at least fifth to win the championship.
Räikkönen clinched his Driver’s Championship title by one point as he won the Brazilian Grand Prix, overturning Hamilton’s 17-point advantage in the final two races.
Written by Millie.
Featured Image Credit: maxf1.net
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