page_title: 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix
section_title: Race
hierarchical_section_title: 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix / Report / Race
caption_attribution_description: Formula One 2007 Rd.17 Brazilian GP: Start of the race at the S do Senna. #5 Felipe Massa (Ferrari), #6 Kimi Räikkönen (Ferrari), #2 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and #1 Fernando Alonso (McLaren)
context_page_description: The 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in São Paulo, Brazil on 21 October 2007. The 71-lap race was the seventeenth and final round of the 2007 Formula One season. The race was won by Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen, who consequently won the 2007 World Drivers' Championship. His teammate Felipe Massa finished the race second, whilst McLaren driver Fernando Alonso completed the podium by finishing in third position. Lewis Hamilton, who had held a four-point advantage over Fernando Alonso, and a seven-point lead over Räikkönen, prior to the race was slowed by a gearbox problem early in the race. He recovered to finish seventh, losing the championship to Räikkönen by a single point; teammate Alonso also ended up finishing just a single point behind. This was also the last race for Ralf Schumacher before he moved on to Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters the following year.
  This was the first time since the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix that Rubens Barrichello failed to finish his home Grand Prix.
context_section_description: Only 21 cars were aligned on the grid, because of problems on the Spyker of Adrian Sutil, who started the race from the pit lane. At the start, the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Räikkönen were faster, with the Finn passing Lewis Hamilton on the outside. At the third corner, Fernando Alonso passed Hamilton on the inside and then, on the Reta Oposta, defended himself from the attack of the Briton by taking the inside line. Hamilton locked up his brakes and went off the track while trying to regain the position. He rejoined the race in 8th place, just behind Jarno Trulli's Toyota. Also in the first lap, Liuzzi lost his front wing and was forced to enter the pits for repairs. In the first corner on the second lap, Fisichella went off the track, and was hit on the back from Sakon Yamamoto while re-entering on the track. Rubens Barrichello jumped the start and was given a drive-through penalty for this.
  Hamilton was trying to make up for the positions he lost: on lap 2 he passed Trulli and went into 7th, and 4 laps later he passed Nick Heidfeld to take the 6th place. Just minutes later, he suffered a gearbox problem: on the Reta Oposta, he failed to find gears and slowed down, to be passed by most cars on the track. After going slowly for about 30 seconds, Hamilton managed to reset the computer of his car, and get it going again: he was in 18th place by then, and with the Ferraris pulling away he needed at the very least 7th place but more likely 5th place to clinch the World Championship.
  At the front no position was changed: by lap 15, the Ferraris were almost 12 seconds ahead of Alonso, third. By that lap, Hamilton climbed to 11th, having passed Barrichello, Ralf Schumacher, Anthony Davidson, Takuma Sato and Kazuki Nakajima, and having taken advantage from the retirement of Mark Webber, who was running in fifth position.
  After 20 laps, the front runners began stopping for the first time: the first was Robert Kubica, who went for 3 stops; on the same lap Massa entered the pits. Räikkönen pitted on lap 22, carrying a bit more fuel than his teammate, to try to overtake him after the second stop. Alonso, Trulli, Vettel and Hamilton pitted on lap 22, with the Spaniard keeping hards, while Hamilton switched his strategy to a 3-stopper (a rather risky strategy on the track which features the longest pit lane of the whole season): he carried less fuel than Alonso and switched to soft tyres. Heidfeld was the last to stop, pitting on lap 25.
  After the first round of pit stops, Massa was leading with 3.3 seconds on Räikkönen, followed by Alonso, 17 seconds behind. Hamilton was 13th, again behind Barrichello, 50 seconds behind Massa. On lap 32, Nakajima entered the pits for his first stop, but he ran wide while entering his stand, injuring two mechanics in the process. They suffered no serious injuries.
  On lap 34 Kubica, who was light on fuel, passed Alonso to take the third position, only to stop 5 laps later; he rejoined in seventh place. Hamilton made his second stop on lap 37, switching to hards again; on the same lap Heikki Kovalainen, who finished his first 16 consecutive races in Formula One, ended his race spinning on turn 3 and crashing into the barriers. This also meant that Kovalainen lost the opportunity to become the first driver to finish all of his races in his first season.
  On lap 43, the second round of pit stops began: the first to enter was David Coulthard from 8th, followed by Trulli (then 6th) a lap later. Meanwhile, Massa made an error and ran wide at the Descida do Lago, with Räikkönen closing on him. The Brazilian pitted on lap 50, followed by Alonso on lap 52 and Räikkönen on lap 53. The Finn set record lap times in the process, which meant he rejoined the race into the lead, 2 seconds ahead of Massa. At that point, Räikkönen was in position to become world champion; third was Kubica (who still had to stop a third time), fourth Alonso, then came Heidfeld, Nico Rosberg, Trulli, Hamilton (more than a minute behind Räikkönen), Coulthard and Nakajima. Hamilton pitted on lap 57, rejoining in 9th. On lap 59 Kubic
caption: The Ferrari drivers took the lead from the McLarens at the start of the race.
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