By DPA
Sao Paulo : Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen has kept the Formula One championship title he won after race stewards cleared Williams and BMW of technical irregularities.
Both Williams and BMW had earlier been investigated after stewards noticed that the fuel in the cars was more than the 10 degrees below the outside temperature that are allowed. They were finally cleared six and a half hours after the race had finished Sunday.
Raikkonen beat Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren-Mercedes team mate Fernando Alonso to the title by one point after winning Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos. Alonso was third and Hamilton seventh.
However, as Williams driver Nico Rosberg finished fourth with the BMWs of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld fifth and sixth, respectively, Hamilton would have been promoted to fourth if all three had been disqualified.
Such a decision would have resulted in Hamilton taking the title. Earlier Sunday, Raikkonen ended the season as it had started for him, as he also won the season-opening race in Australia.
McLaren-Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who went into the race with a seven-point lead over Raikkonen and a four-point lead over Alonso, finished a disappointing seventh and slipped down to second in the drivers’ standings.
Raikkonen finished the season on 110 points, one more than Hamilton and Alonso. Raikkonen’s team-mate Felipe Massa was second in the race ahead of Alonso.
Raikkonen, who had earlier in the season said that he thought that the championship was no longer a possibility, joked after the race that he had never said that.
“We certainly always believed that we can recover and even with the hard times we were sticking together. We reduced the gap and then we came from behind to not only take the constructors’ championship, but also the drivers’.”
Raikkonen, who is known as the ice-man on the circuit and seldom changes the expression on his face, smiled broadly as he said that it was difficult to put into words how he felt after having come close to winning previously.
“It is just an amazing day.
“I had an ideal start and then I saw Hamilton slip off in my rearview mirror and then I knew that I must have a chance. But even after I won the race, I still had to wait for a long time before Lewis finished.”
A combination of driving errors and bad luck saw Hamilton throw the championship away.
Hamilton’s problems began on the first lap as he tried to overtake Alonso, who had earlier passed him. The Briton ran wide and lost several places, coming back in eighth place.
On the fourth lap, he again ran wide, but worse was to follow as he suddenly slowed down on lap eight and seemingly could do nothing as car after car raced past.
He suddenly found his speed again, but at this stage was down to 18th.
The young McLaren driver then started a furious chase, overtaking one or two cars per lap.
Up front Massa and Raikkonen were increasing their lead from Alonso.
Local hero Massa was the first to go into the pits and many fans were expecting Raikkonen, who came in shortly afterwards, to rejoin the race in first place, but rather surprisingly Raikkonen came out behind the Brazilian.
The race continued to be dominated by spectacular withdrawals as Adrian Sutil crashed into Anthony Davidson, with Sutil receiving a drive-through penalty for the incident.
On lap 38 Heikki Kovalainen spectacularly crashed, forcing a yellow-flag stage and just four laps later Rubens Barrichello withdrew with engine failure.
With 22 laps remaining Hamilton had fought his way back to eighth, but that would not have been good enough to win the championship unless Alonso and Raikkonen also fell back.
When Raikkonen pitted for the second time with 18 laps to go after having been able to stay out for two laps longer than Massa, he rejoined the race in first place, but with Massa close enough on his tail to avoid any suggestion of impropriety.
The two Ferrari’s then comfortably set their pace for the remaining laps, with Alonso not having enough speed to put them under any pressure.
Alonso congratulated Raikkonen for winning the championship. “I always said that whoever had the most points on the last day of the season deserved the championship.
Behind the trio the BMWs of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld were involved in a tussle for the next places with Williams’ Nico Rosberg, which Rosberg won by taking fourth ahead of Kubica and Heidfeld.
Hamilton finished seventh to take two points in the standings, while the final point went to Toyota’s Jarno Trulli.
Raikkonen won the championship with 110 points from Hamilton and Alonso who both have 109, with the Briton classified second on results.
Ferrari also won the constructors’ championship ahead of BMW.