Hamilton woe as Raikkonen wins title

In one of the closest finishes ever seen, Raikkonen's victory at Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix enabled him to finish one point ahead of both Hamilton and team-mate Fernando Alonso in the standings.

There was always likely to be one final extraordinary twist to the most astonishing of seasons in the 58 years of the sport, and so it proved at Interlagos.

Hamilton made a crucial error early on, allowing Raikkonen to pass on the approach to the first corner was not a problem bearing in mind the seven-point gap to the Finn.

But as Raikkonen pressed behind Felipe Massa he braked sharply, forcing Hamilton to bunch up behind him, and that gave Alonso the opportunity he needed to pass his team-mate around the outside.

Hamilton's error came when he then tried to retake Alonso down the straight of the Reta Opasta, braking hard and running wide, allowing four cars to pass and dropping him to eighth.

He was soon up to sixth, but on lap eight it appeared as if Hamilton's dream would surely die as he dramatically slowed, almost to a standstill. Hamilton could be seen rocking in his McLaren, virtually willing it to get going, while all the time the field streamed by.

Whatever the problem, his car finally regained power, but the malfunction had relegated him to 18th place and 41 seconds adrift of Massa.

It forced the team into changing their strategy, pushing him into a three-stopper in the hope that fuelling him short would propel him up the field.

But in the end it was not enough as Hamilton could only come home a distraught seventh and it was Raikkonen the man celebrating, leaving McLaren in despair as not even Alonso could claim a third successive crown, finishing third behind a Ferrari one-two as Massa came second on home soil.