Ferrari driver Felipe Massa won the 71-lap race from pole position on this F2008 in the one of the most dramatic final of the World Driver Championsip. Even wining Massa lost the Champioship for 1 point when Hamilton luckily jumped for 6th to 5th in the last curve of the race, worth reading the article below.

Heading into the final race of the season, McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton was leading the Drivers' Championship with 94 points; Ferrari driver Felipe Massa was second with 87 points, seven points behind Hamilton. A maximum of ten points were available for the final race, which meant that Massa could still win the title if Hamilton finished in sixth place or lower. Otherwise, Hamilton would be champion. In the event of a points tie, Massa would win the championship on a count-back, having more wins

Massa retained his pole position lead into the first corner, followed by Trulli, Räikkönen, Hamilton and Kovalainen. On lap 15, Massa set a new fastest lap of 1:16.888, and extended his lead over Vettel. Hamilton was floating betwwen 4th and 5th grabbing enough points to be world Champion at that time. Timo Glock was fuelled so he could complete the race without stopping again, when he made a pit stop on lap 36. After dramatic pit-stops the order was Massa, Alonso, Raikkonen and Hamilton.

Light rain began to fall on lap 63, 7 laps to the end.  Alonso and Räikkönen made a pit stop on lap 66 and kept the positions. Hamilton and Vettel halted their battle for fourth position when they came into the pit lane to change onto intermediate tyres on lap 66. Glock chose to remain on his dry-weather tyres and rose from seventh to fourth place as those ahead of him made pit stops. Massa made a pit stop on lap 67, meaning that all of the frontrunners, with the exception of Glock, were now on intermediate tyres. The rain began to fall heavily on lap 69, as Hamilton ran wide, which allowed Vettel to take fifth position, Hamilton in 6th was losing the Champioship with 2 laps to go. As Massa crossed the finish line to win the race, Hamilton battled Vettel for the crucial point needed to win the championship. Hamilton did not know of his position upon beginning the final lap and was told over the radio to overtake Glock during the fifth-place battle. Vettel and Hamilton passed Glock in the final corners, the Toyota driver struggling for grip as his dry-weather tyres slid on the wet track. Premature joy in the Ferrari garage soon turned to disappointment as Hamilton finished the race in fifth position, clinching the championship by a single point and becoming Formula One's youngest championship winner until Vettel in 2010.

The top three finishers appeared on the podium and in the subsequent press conference. Massa said that he had "almost done everything perfectly", and expressed his disappointment that despite winning the race he had not won the championship. He gave his congratulations to Hamilton. Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo was reportedly so angry with the result, however, that he destroyed the television he was viewing the race on.  McLaren boss Ron Dennis praised Hamilton, saying: "He just keeps delivering and, at the end of the day, he's just two years into his career. So there's a long way to go. GrandPrix.com expressed disbelief in the outcome: "It was a showdown so improbable that even Hollywood would not have made a film of it. The scriptwriters would have been laughed out of the studios."Autosport magazine writer Adam Cooper called the race "epic". After considering other Formula One title finales, Cooper concluded "nothing has ever matched what we saw in Brazil

Glock added that the conditions were so poor "I didn't even know that Lewis had overtaken me until after the race". His family would receive hate mail from fans and he was particularly heavily criticised by Italian journalists who held the perception that he assisted in helping Hamilton win the championship.

The Chronicle   The Race