Lewis Hamilton. Felipe Massa. One Formula 1 World Championship. 38 seconds would decide its winner…
In 15th November 2020, Lewis Hamilton won the Turkish Grand Prix. By claiming his 10th win of the season (out of 14 races), Hamilton claimed his 7th Formula 1 World Championship, equalling the record tally of Michael Schumacher. Schumacher’s record had been in place since 2004, and for a time, seemed like a record that would never be broken. However, a dominant season from the British driver saw him win the world title for the 4th season in a row and the 6th time in 7 years. Hamilton won his 7th World Championship at a canter with three races remaining. 12 years earlier, Hamilton had played a key role in one of the closest World Championship results in the history of Formula 1. The following article will take you back to the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, the last race of the 2008 Formula 1 season when the World Championship was decided by a last-corner overtake.
The date was Sunday, 2nd November 2008. The location for the 37th Brazilian Grand Prix: the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in Interlagos, a suburb of Sao Paulo, Brazil’s biggest city. For the third season in a row, the Brazilian Grand Prix would serve as the final race of the Formula 1 season. For the third season in a row, the fate of the Formula 1 World Championship remained unknown. In 2006, a 2nd-placed finish was enough for Fernando Alonso to claim his second consecutive World Championship, beating Michael Schumacher in the final race of his Formula 1 career. One year later, flying Finn Kimi Raikkonen claimed victory at Interlagos to win a three-way title battle against defending champion Alonso and his rookie teammate Lewis Hamilton, who had enjoyed a breakout season.
In 2008, two drivers headed into Brazil knowing that they were in with a chance of claiming their maiden World Championship. Those two drivers were McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton (Great Britain) and Ferrari driver Felipe Massa (Brazil). Both men were looking to end national droughts by being victorious at Interlagos. Hamilton was looking to become the first British World Champion since Damon Hill in 1996, while Massa was looking to become the first Brazilian champion since 1991, when Ayrton Senna claimed his third Driver’s Championship.
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The Story of the Season…
While the 2008 Formula 1 season had seen maiden victories for Robert Kubica in Canada, Heikki Kovalainen in Hungary and Sebastien Vettel at Monza, the two leading lights of the 2008 season were Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.
The season began with contrasting fortunes for the two drivers as Felipe Massa would fail to finish the first two races of the season in Australia and Malaysia. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton would triumph in the season opener at Albert Park. Massa’s teammate Raikkonen would emerge victorious in Malaysia with Hamilton finishing in 5th. Raikkonen’s win in Sepang would be the first in four consecutive victories for Ferrari. The second win in that streak would finally see Massa’s luck come good. In Bahrain, Massa would lead a Ferrari one-two, while Hamilton would finish way down the field in 13th. In Spain, Raikkonen would claim his second victory of the season, with Massa (2nd) and Hamilton (3rd), joining him on the podium. Massa would claim his second and Ferrari’s 4th consecutive victory of the season by winning the Turkish Grand Prix for the third season running. Hamilton would finish three seconds behind in 2nd, with Raikkonen finishing in 3rd. After five rounds of the 2008 F1 season, defending champion Kimi Raikkonen led the championship standings with 35 points, with Massa and Hamilton in joint-2nd place with 28 points each. Two races later, that two-way tie for 2nd would become a two-way tie for 1st.
At the end of May, Hamilton would win his first Monaco Grand Prix, with Massa finishing in 3rd. One race later in Canada, a 5th-place finish for Massa was enough for him to join the Brit at the top of the championship standings on 38 points each after Hamilton and Raikkonen suffered early retirements. The French Grand Prix would see Massa lead out the third Ferrari 1-2 of the season as Hamilton finished out of the points. However, the young Brit would soon recover with back-to-back victories in the British and German Grand Prix, with Raikkonen and Massa finishing 3rd in the former and latter. Just past the halfway point of the season (10 out of 18 races), only seven points separated Lewis Hamilton (58 points), Felipe Massa (54 points) and Kimi Raikkonen (51 points).
After a 5th-placed finish for Hamilton and a poor result for Massa (17th) in Hungary, the Brazilian driver would himself achieve back-to-back victories at the European Grand Prix in Valencia and the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, with Hamilton finishing on the podium in both races. With Kimi Raikkonen failing to score in either race and now out of World Championship contention, it was now a certainty that Formula 1 would crown a new driver’s champion. The rest of the season would see a tit-for-tat battle between Massa and Hamilton with both drivers struggling to remain consistent over the four races that would precede Brazil. After both drivers scrapped for the minor points in Italy, just one point would separate Hamilton (78) and Massa (77) in the championship standings. The two title rivals would swap points finishes and mid-table finishes, as Hamilton would finish 3rd in Singapore with Massa 13th and Massa would finish 7th in Japan with Hamilton in 12th. In the penultimate grand prix of the season, the British driver would lead from start to finish to win in China ahead of Massa in 2nd.
Heading into Brazil, the final grand prix of the season, Lewis Hamilton led Felipe Massa by 7 points in the World Championship standings. From the previous 17 grand prix, Lewis Hamilton had five wins and ten podium finishes, scoring 94 points while Felipe Massa had five wins, nine podiums, scoring 87 points.
2008 Results (before Brazilian Grand Prix)
| Round | Date | Grand Prix | Hamilton (Points) | Massa (Points) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16th March | Australia | 1st (10) | DNF (0) |
| 2 | 23rd March | Malaysia | 5th (14) | DNF (0) |
| 3 | 6th April | Bahrain | 13th (14) | 1st (10) |
| 4 | 27th April | Spain | 3rd (20) | 2nd (18) |
| 5 | 11th May | Turkey | 2nd (28) | 1st (28) |
| 6 | 25th May | Monaco | 1st (38) | 3rd (34) |
| 7 | 8th June | Canada | DNF (38) | 5th (38) |
| 8 | 22nd June | France | 10th (38) | 1st (48) |
| 9 | 6th July | Great Britain | 1st (48) | 13th (48) |
| 10 | 20th July | Germany | 1st (58) | 3rd (54) |
| 11 | 3rd August | Hungary | 5th (62) | 17th (54) |
| 12 | 24th August | Europe (Valencia) | 2nd (70) | 1st (64) |
| 13 | 7th September | Belgium | 3rd (76) | 1st (74) |
| 14 | 14th September | Italy | 7th (78) | 6th (77) |
| 15 | 28th September | Singapore | 3rd (84) | 13th (77) |
| 16 | 12th October | Japan | 12th (84) | 7th (79) |
| 17 | 19th October | China | 1st (94) | 2nd (87) |
Brazil
What were the ramifications for both drivers heading into this race? As the World Championship points leader, Lewis Hamilton did not need to win the Brazilian Grand Prix to become the World Champion. With a seven-point lead over Felipe Massa heading into the race, Hamilton could finish as low as 5th and still become the champion. Looking to overhaul a seven-point deficit to Hamilton, and with a maximum of 10 points awarded to the winner, three ramifications could result in the Brazilian becoming the World Champion. If Hamilton failed to score points in Brazil ( finishing 9th place or lower), Massa needed to finish in 1st or 2nd to overhaul Hamilton’s points total. A Massa win in Brazil would also guarantee championship victory, if Hamilton finished in the minor points positions (6th place or lower).
Knowing those ramifications, Felipe Massa knew that he needed to have a perfect race weekend. After posting impressive times in all three practice sessions, Massa was consistent throughout qualifying. After going fastest in Q1 (1:11.830), and 4th fastest in Q2 (1:11.875), the 27-year-old Brazilian driver took pole position at his home track for the third season running. His time of 1:12.368 was four-tenths of a second ahead of Toyota’s Jarno Trulli in 2nd (1:12.737) and Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen in 3rd (1:12.825). Championship leader Lewis Hamilton would qualify 4th, meaning he would start alongside Raikkonen on the second row of starting grid in Interlagos. The following day, two men would have the chance to achieve their dream of becoming Formula 1 World Champion.
For Massa, winning would see him step out of the shadows to finally become the main star of the sport’s biggest team, after spending the previous two seasons delivering impressive performances as Ferrari’s No.2 driver behind title-chasing Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen. For Hamilton, winning would mean many things. At 23 years and 300 days, he would become the youngest ever Formula 1 World Champion, beating the record Fernando Alonso, who was 24 years and 59 days old when he won his first world title in 2005. Hamilton would also become the first black Formula 1 World Champion if he triumphed in Brazil. He would also equal the record of 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve for the fewest seasons taken to become world champion by winning the title in just his second season in Formula 1.
One year earlier, Lewis Hamilton did have the chance to break this record and become the only driver to become World Champion in his debut season (discounting F1’s debut season in 1950). Heading into the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton led the championship standings by four points ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso and seven points ahead of Kimi Raikkonen. Starting 2nd on the grid with Raikkonen 3rd and Alonso 4th, an early gearbox problem would drop him down the field and affect the rest of his race. Hamilton would ultimately finish the race in 7th place. Unfortunately for Hamilton, Raikkonen had just crossed the finishing line in 1st, winning his first Brazilian Grand Prix and, more importantly, his first World Championship. From this Grand Prix, the 10 points scored by Raikkonen were enough to overturn Hamilton’s seven-point lead to claim the championship by a single point. One year later, Lewis Hamilton would be hoping that the same wouldn’t happen again. If Hamilton lost the F1 World Championship to Massa, questions would start to be asked about the young Brit’s mettle when the pressure was on him to succeed.
The Race
2008 Brazilian Grand Prix Starting Grid
| Position | Driver | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 1st (Pole) | Felipe Massa | Ferrari |
| 2nd | Jarno Trulli | Toyota |
| 3rd | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari |
| 4th | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren |
| 5th | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren |
| 6th | Fernando Alonso | Renault |
| 7th | Sebastian Vettel | Toro Rosso |
| 8th | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber |
| 9th | Sebastien Bourdais | Toro Rosso |
| 10th | Timo Glock | Toyota |
| 11th | Nelson Piquet Jr. | Renault |
| 12th | Mark Webber | Red Bull |
| 13th | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber |
| 14th | David Coulthard | Red Bull |
| 15th | Rubens Barrichello | Honda |
| 16th | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams |
| 17th | Jenson Button | Honda |
| 18th | Nico Rosberg | Williams |
| 19th | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India |
| 20th | Adrian Sutil | Force India |
The race start was delayed due to to a heavy rainstorm on the track, leading to all drivers starting the race on intermediate tyres (except Robert Kubica who would begin his race from the pit lane). The 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix would have a clean start, only for the safety car to be deployed at the end of the first lap. A suspension problem and a crash into the barriers ended the races of David Coulthard and Nelson Piquet Jr. respectively. For Coulthard, this early retirement was a big deal considered that it occurred in his 246th and final Formula 1 Grand Prix. For this special occasion, Coulthard had been allowed by the Red Bull team to sport a special livery on his car. Instead of the Red Bull colours of red yellow and blue to white, black and red in honour of the charity Wings For Life, a charity that raised awareness of spinal cord injuries. All that effort for a car that would crash out on Lap 1 of the Brazilian Grand Prix. The cars of Coulthard and Piquet Jr would be the only two cars that would fail to finish at Interlagos.
The safety car would return to the pit lane on Lap 5, allowing the race to start once again. Despite the pre-race rainstorm, all of the field had switched to dry tyres by Lap 11. Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella, who had been the first to switch to dry tyres on Lap 2, had risen from 18th to 5th due to the rest of the field pitting. Fisichella would soon find himself being chased by Lewis Hamilton. However, despite being in the quicker car, the 23-year-old Brit would find it difficult to pass the experienced Italian, finally overtaking him on Lap 18. Two laps later, Toyota driver Timo Glock would also pass Fisichella, moving up into 6th place. Meanwhile, Felipe Massa, the race leader, was using the advantage of driving into clean air to set several fastest lap times to extend his lead over 2nd-placed Sebastian Vettel. On Lap 36, Massa would set the quickest lap of the entire race, posting a time of 1:13.736.
On Lap 38, Massa, who had been leading from the start would make his second pit stop of the race, giving the lead of the grand prix to Fernando Alonso who, for the first time since 2004, was not challenging for the world championship come the final race of the season. The Spanish driver was instead battling BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld for 5th place in the championship standings. On Lap 40, Alonso and Hamilton both pitted from 1st and 3rd, dropping them behind new leader Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. A Raikkonen pit stop three laps later allowed Massa would reclaim the lead of the race, a lead that he would never relinquish. Raikkonen’s pit stop dropped him down to 4th place, but more importantly, kept him of Lewis Hamilton in 5th. With Massa continuing to extend his lead at the head of the race with Hamilton not wanting to take too many risks in his bid to become world champion, the next major pit stop in this race would arrive on Lap 51.
On Lap 51, Sebastian Vettel would pit for a 3rd time, with the Toro Rosso team filling the young German’s car with enough fuel to power him for the final 20 laps of the race. The pit stop dropped Vettel from 2nd place behind Massa to 5th, one spot behind Lewis Hamilton. With 20 laps to go, Hamilton was still on target to become world champion. All he had to do was keep his car on the road and make sure that he didn’t drop lower than 5th place. However, the 21-year-old Vettel, who had recently shocked the world by winning the Italian Grand Prix in September, was looking for an opportunity to further impress the higher-ups at Red Bull Racing, the team that Vettel would join the following season. Also, Vettel’s Toro Rosso had fresh tyres and more fuel than Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren and had no desire to follow any pre-prepared script to let the Brit cruise his way to the World Championship.
With Felipe Massa comfortably extending his lead at the front of the race to over 10 seconds ahead of 2nd-placed Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel was closing in on Lewis Hamilton. By Lap 56, the young German had closed the gap between the Toro Rosso and the McLaren to just 1 second. If Vettel managed to overtake Hamilton for 4th place, the young Brit would still be in a position to win the world title but would have to remain cautious to avoid dropping to 6th place and losing the title to Massa. Speaking of Massa, the Brazilian had extended his race lead over Alonso to more than 12 seconds by the end of Lap 61. With 10 laps remaining, Lewis Hamilton was still doing enough to win the World Championship. However, the weather would throw a spanner in the works, leading to a dramatic climax to this season-ending grand prix.
On Lap 64, the first spots of rain would start to appear on the Interlagos race circuit. As cars lower down the field start to pit to change to intermediate tyres, the leading cars remained on the track as Vettel started threatening to overtake Lewis Hamilton. With Vettel’s Toro Rosso filling his wing mirrors, the two young drivers had put their battle for 4th place to one side to take their final pit stops and exchange their dry tyres for intermediate tyres. All of the leading cars except Massa (Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Vettel) would pit with five laps remaining (Lap 66), with the race leader coming in a lap later.
While Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen would pit their cars and return to the track still sitting in 1st, 2nd and 3rd place, Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel’s pit stops would drop them down to 5th and 6th, having been overtaken by the Toyota of Timo Glock. Glock had chosen not to pit for wet weather tyres along with the rest of the field had, and had not taken a pit stop since Lap 36. Despite pitting, Hamilton was still in a position to win the championship. Yet, just as before the pit stops, Sebastian Vettel was close enough to attempt an overtake that if successful, could have dramatic consequences for the fate of the 2008 season.
At the end of Lap 68 (three laps to go), Felipe Massa had extended his race lead to 14 seconds. It now seemed inevitable that the Brazilian driver would win his second Brazilian Grand Prix in three seasons, barring a late stoppage. Massa was on course to achieve his main goal for the weekend. For Lewis Hamilton, it was becoming a different story. With two laps to go, Hamilton ran wide on the slippery race track, allowing Vettel to drive through the gap and up into 5th place and pushing Hamilton down into 6th. With that dropped place, the world championship was now going to Massa, unless Hamilton could retake 5th place in the final two laps of the race.
Heading into Lap 71 of 71 of the Brazilian Grand Prix, Felipe Massa sat in 1st place with a 14 second lead over Fernando Alonso in 2nd, and Kimi Raikkonen in 3rd. Over 20 seconds behind this trio sat Timo Glock in 4th, who was starting to struggle driving on dry tyres in increasingly wet conditions. Closing in on Glock was Sebastian Vettel and the charging Lewis Hamilton in 6th. At the beginning of the final lap of the season, it looked like the next Formula 1 World Champion would be Felipe Massa. Hamilton needed to overtake Sebastian Vettel on the final lap or would see his championship lead overturned by the Brazilian driver. Halfway through the last lap, the title was going to Felipe Massa. With three corners to go, the title was going to Massa. Two corners, still Massa. As Felipe Massa turned the final corner to be greeted by an ecstatic home crowd at Interlagos, the 27-year-old was set to win the world championship in style by winning his home grand prix.
Being greeted by the chequered flag as he crossed the finishing line, Felipe Massa celebrated. The Brazilian crowd celebrated. The Ferrari pit garage celebrated. Felipe Massa had won the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix and, as far as anyone knew, had become the 2008 Formula 1 World Champion. 13 seconds after Massa, the Renault of Fernando Alonso would cross to take 2nd place, with the Spaniard taking his 3rd podium place in 4 races. Three seconds later, Massa’s Ferrari teammate, and the outgoing world champion, Kimi Raikkonen would cross the line to take 3rd, the flying Finn scoring his third consecutive podium finish. Who better to lose it to than his own teammate? The two podium finishes for Massa and Raikkonen assured that Ferrari won the Constructor’s World Championship for the second season running.
Now came a 20-second wait as the crowd craned their necks to see who would round the final corner to take 4th. The expectation would be to see the red-and-white Toyota of Timo Glock who had sat in 4th for the previous four laps. However, 4th, 5th and 6th would arrive in quick succession. At that moment, the emotions of the Brazilian crowd turned from jubilation to despair. First would arrive the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel to take 4th, another impressive performance from the 21-year-old. Close behind him in 5th place came the recognisable silver, red and white livery of a McLaren featuring a driver wearing a yellow helmet in the colours of three-time Formula 1 World Champion and Brazilian national hero Ayrton Senna.
The result became official as the McLaren met the chequered flag. The 2008 Formula 1 World Championship would not be heading to Felipe Massa in a stirring upset, but instead to Lewis Hamilton, but how had he achieved this? Just one lap earlier, Hamilton was down in 6th place, out of contention, struggling to overtake Sebastian Vettel for 5th. The 23-year-old British driver seemed to have ‘choked’ once again, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory for the second season running. However, with the Toyota of Glock slipping and sliding in the wet conditions, Vettel passed Glock for 4th place. On the last corner of the last lap of the last race of the 2008 season, Hamilton passed the ailing Glock for 5th, and more crucially the World Championship title.
Despair turned to celebration in the McLaren garage, which included Hamilton’s family and his then-girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger. The opposite played out in the Ferrari garage, as wild celebrations had turned to sadness, anger and frustration. Both drivers were visibly emotional after the race. TV cameras captured Hamilton wiping his eyes with a towel in the McLaren pit garage. At the same time Massa’s eyes were wet as he celebrated his race victory on the podium in front of the 100,000 fans at Interlagos. These two drivers had played their part in the most dramatic finish to a Formula 1 season to that point and in one of the all-time great Formula 1 grand prix.
On that day, Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship by one point over Felipe Massa, just one season after losing the championship by the same amount to Kimi Raikkonen. Massa was technically the 2008 world champion for 38.9 seconds, as was the time between the two drivers crossing the finishing line. In one corner, the championship had switched hands. The race for the Formula 1 World Championship has never been closer than this.
2008 Brazilian Grand Prix Final Classification
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 1:34:11.435 | 10 |
| 2nd | Fernando Alonso | Renault | +13.298 | 8 |
| 3rd | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | +16.235 | 6 |
| 4th | Sebastian Vettel | Toro Rosso | +38.011 | 5 |
| 5th | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | +38.907 | 4 |
| 6th | Timo Glock | Toyota | +44.368 | 3 |
| 7th | Heikki Kovalainen | McLaren | +55.074 | 2 |
| 8th | Jarno Trulli | Toyota | +1:08.433 | 1 |
| 9th | Mark Webber | Red Bull | +1:19.666 | |
| 10th | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | +1 lap | |
| 11th | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | +1 lap | |
| 12th | Nico Rosberg | Williams | +1 lap | |
| 13th | Jenson Button | Honda | +1 lap | |
| 14th | Sebastien Bourdais | Toro Rosso | +1 lap | |
| 15th | Rubens Barrichello | Honda | +1 lap | |
| 16th | Adrian Sutil | Force India | +2 laps | |
| 17th | Kazuki Nakajima | Williams | +2 laps | |
| 18th | Giancarlo Fisichella | Force India | +2 laps | |
| DNF | Nelson Piquet Jr | Renault | N/A (retired Lap 1) | |
| DNF | David Coulthard | Red Bull | N/A (retired Lap 1) |
Top of final 2008 Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship Table
| Position | Driver | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren | 98 |
| 2nd | Felipe Massa | Ferrari | 97 |
| 3rd | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 75 |
| 4th | Robert Kubica | BMW Sauber | 75 |
| 5th | Fernando Alonso | Renault | 61 |
| 6th | Nick Heidfeld | BMW Sauber | 60 |
Unfortunately for Felipe Massa, the date of Sunday 2nd November 2008 would be the peak of his Formula 1 career. Not only would the man from Sao Paulo never win a world championship, but the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix would also prove to be the 11th and final win of his F1 career. Despite driving for Ferrari until 2014, and then for Williams until his retirement in 2017, the best he would manage was a further 13 podium finishes between 2009 and 2015, the last coming at the 2015 Italian Grand Prix.
After winning his first Drivers’ Championship in Brazil, Lewis Hamilton would have to wait another six years to win his second. His title-winning season would be followed up by a lacklustre 2009, before he returned to championship contention in 2010, coming 4th. Two more seasons without success led Hamilton to depart his boyhood McLaren team for Mercedes in 2013, where he would pair up with his best friend Nico Rosberg. This team-up would lead to the best in-team rivalry since the days of Prost and Senna at McLaren as the two drivers fought over the next three world championships between 2014 and 2016. Since Rosberg’s shock retirement after winning in 2016, Hamilton has become the leading light of Formula 1, and the unquestionable face of the sport. Since signing for Mercedes in 2013, Hamilton has won six Drivers’ Championships (2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020), and is now in the question for the greatest Formula 1 driver ever. All this success can be traced back to one overtake in Interlagos that decided the fate of a world championship in less than 10 seconds. Let’s say that Formula 1 fans will forever remember Timo Glock just for this one moment.
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