World championship leader Lewis Hamilton this week rested at his hotel ahead of the weekend’s Formula One world title showdown, knowing he will need all his energy and focus to emerge triumphant from a three-way battle for glory.
As the sprawling city of São Paulo buzzed with anticipation beneath a leaden grey sky and clouds of smog, the 22-year-old Briton and his main rival, McLaren teammate Spaniard Fernando Alonso, kept a low profile.
Defending double champion Alonso, who is just four points behind rookie Hamilton going into Sunday’s final race of the season, is seeking to become the first driver since the great Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio to win successive titles with different teams.
Finn Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari, is also a contender.
He lies just seven points behind Hamilton going into the first three-way showdown since 1986 when Briton Nigel Mansell’s hopes of the title were wrecked by a high-speed tyre failure and Frenchman Alain Prost took the title.
This is the ninth time the championship has gone to the final race with three contenders seeking the title, but in the previous eight the leader has taken the title only three times.
The statistics may not favour any of the drivers particularly, but there is little doubt that McLaren have a better chance of delivering the champion than Ferrari — and for that reason a representative of the sport’s ruling body, the Federation International de l’Automobile (FIA), will be in their garage this weekend to ensure fair play.
Hamilton needs only to finish second, even if Alonso wins, for him to become the first rookie to lift the title.
Hamilton, who could have taken the title in China, but instead retired when his car slid off into a gravel trap in the Shanghai pit lane while he was leading, has said he has learned from that mistake.
”China was another valuable lesson for me this season, and an incident I will take from and try to develop from as a driver,” he said.
”I moved on from the disappointment pretty quickly and since leaving Shanghai, my sole focus has been on Brazil.”
Hamilton only had to finish ahead of Alonso to clinch the title in China, but stayed out too long on badly-worn tyres.
This time, he said, he will take nothing for granted despite having a slight advantage.
He said: ”I may be ahead by four points, but this championship is still very open. I will do what I can to score the points I need, and the rest is out of our hands.”
Alonso, who must finish in the top four and outscore Hamilton by at least five points, said: ”Although I am now only four points away from Lewis, I still need for there to be a lot of circumstances in my favour for me to win the drivers’ title.
”These are things that are out of my control, but for sure I will be doing everything that is under my control to make it happen. I have to do my bit and then hope everything else falls into place.”
The Spaniard, whose media have whipped up a partisan storm of controversy by suggesting that McLaren have favoured Hamilton against Alonso this year, said he is happy that the team will treat the two drivers fairly and equally.
”I am sure we are going to have full equality across the team and two cars capable of fighting for victory in the race and the championship,” he said.
Raikkonen, the outsider, who has won the most races — five — of any driver this year, needs to finish first or second and hope that the other two fail to score a significant number of points.
The Finn may, however, prove to be the surprise challenger as he has the advantage of a fast and committed teammate in Brazilian local hero Felipe Massa, who won the race last year.
Massa, who this week agreed a new contract to stay with Ferrari to 2010, will have a lot of local support and his push for speed will help Raikkonen find a competitive set-up on the demanding and physical anti-clockwise Interlagos circuit. — AFP
