Congratulations Kimi!
Today's Brazilian Grand Prix was billed up to be a cracker, and a cracker it was. Lewis Hamilton went into the final race of the Formula 1 season four points ahead of Fernando Alonso and seven ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Superficial logic said that Kimi stood no chance, and that Hamilton, given the likelihood of a Ferrari victory, would wrap up the title.
It wasn't to be. But then, when you think about it, it wasn't really much of a surprise, even discounting the awful track record championship leaders have in three-way fights in the final race. Fernando Alonso had the smallest chance of everyone of coming away with the title. Let me explain.
Ferrari looked like dominating. It was quite clear that, reliability problems and mistakes aside, they were likely to record a 1-2 win. Assuming team orders, if Fernando Alonso were to finish third, then Kimi would take the win, taking four points off Alonso, putting him 1 point clear of Alonso. Thus, given Ferrari's dominance, Fernando Alonso stood little chance of winning the championship. Therefore, Lewis Hamilton "only" needed to finish fifth to win the title. It sounds easy, but the law of averages says that he was overdue a mechanical problem...
The law of averages won. Ferrari got their expected 1-2 finish. Kimi wins the title. A victory for rational science, though slightly unconventional. Of course, that fails to take into account the historical record of pernickety scrutineers. However, I am confident no action will be taken on this occasion to disqualify the BMW Sauber and Williams teams from the Grand Prix!
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