2007 Brazillian Grand Prix *Season Finale!*

Sunday –

 
Ferrari have their new Champion and Kimi smiles as destiny’s child, and the 2007 F1 World Championship is well deserved to him.

Kimi Raikkonen : perseverance won the title

"For sure we were not in the strongest position as some point of the
season, (but) we always believed we can recover, we always believed we
can do a better job than the others," said Raikkonen. Even in hard times we stick together and never give up. We saw at
the end that although we were a long way behind, we knew we could win
the championship."

"I have to thank the team, they did a great job, not just today but
all year," Raikkonen said. "We always worked hard and improved the
situation, we had perfect team work, we had a hard fight with Massa all
year and he was unfortunate not being in the fight any more.

"The sponsors have been a big bonus for us, they have done a great
job for us, improving the fuel and everything, for sure I am going to
enjoy today. I am very happy. I got a very good start, we were side by side with Felipe but we
didn’t want to race too hard," he explained. "I got past Hamilton and
then he went off and I knew we had a chance then.

"We had good speed with the car, taking it easy, saving the car and
tyres, we could have gone faster. Perfect work from the team, it paid
off very well so thanks very much.

"I wasn’t really 100 percent sure, we weren’t sure if someone needed
to stop in front of Lewis. He was seventh and even though I finished,
there were other people who needed to finish, it took a long time to
hear I had finally won. After the last few races we scored some good points, it has been a
good finish to the season, great work for everybody. I am very happy:
it was an amazing day."

An amazing day indeed! Fantastic stuff from you Kimi. Absolutely fantastic. Congratulations to the Iceman – the man who we have supported no matter what situation we were in. I believed you would win it today and never for a second doubted you. A big hug from me goes out to all the Kimi fans out there – congratulations guys! Go on, don’t be shy, leave a comment and tell us your thoughts about the race, and your feelings when watching Kimi pronounced as world champion. I couldn’t hold my tears in! Keep Flying Kimi – we adore you!

Sunday Quotes

Raikkonen won’t let title change his style – "It’s not going to really change my life too much," he said. "People
will probably try to make up more stories about me but I’m not going to
change myself, I never did before and it’s not going to happen in the
future.

"I lead my life as I want and that’s it. For sure, we are going to
have a big party, not just here but next week…it’s been a long season
and it’s hard to realise that we finally did it after many years."

Raikkonen, who stepped into retired seven-times world champion
Michael Schumacher’s shoes this season after five years with McLaren,
echoed his German predecessor in saying the Italian team felt like a
family to him.

"I enjoy every moment with the team," said the first driver since
the late Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio to win the championship in his
first season with Ferrari.

"I have enjoyed Formula One much more this year than I enjoyed the
last few years, for many reasons — not because of the driving, but for
some other reasons. I’m more than happy to win the championship with Ferrari, especially in the first year with the team. It is such a nice big family, great people to work for. I’d rather
win with them than anyone else," added Raikkonen, whose victory at
Interlagos was his sixth of the year.

Post-race press conference – Q: (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Kimi, I feel great and I can
see that you feel great, very great. Do you feel even greater if Marcus
wins the world rally title?

KR: Good for him, good for Finland, yes, but nothing changes in my
life, so I am happy for him if he wins and it will be hard for him. But
I am going to enjoy my own victory now as the world champion, so we
will see what happens in the other races. I am not too interested in
that now.

Q: (Timo Kunnari – Iltalehti) Kimi, tell us about your feelings as a champion? Are you going to dance the samba tonight?

KR: I don’t know about dancing. I am not going to be in condition
for dancing. We will just see what happens tonight – for sure we are
going to have a big party, not just tonight but next week and I felt
great after the race, a good feeling, but it has been a long season and
it is hard to realise that we finally did it after many years and in my
first year here at Ferrari and because it has been not in our minds to
be a world champion because it seemed so far away, but we managed to
come back and win it. So it is hard to believe that it happened. I feel
great but it will take a little time to have the real feeling.

Q: (Valeria Zukeran – O Estado De Sao Paulo) Kimi, you have a
reputation for being an unlucky driver, but today a lot happened and
you won the championship?

KR: I don’t know. I never said I am really unlucky. I don’t believe
in luck too much – it is down to hard work and sometimes you do things
wrong and sometimes you have problems, but today we needed help from
the others and it turned out to be good for us. Sometimes this year we
have had hard times in the races when we have been leading and
something has gone wrong. But today everything went right and worked
out for us beautifully. I don’t know if it is luck or whatever but I
take it. It was good and that is the main thing.

Q: (Dan Knutson – National Speed Sport News) Kimi, how do you see
yourself coping with the increased media demands of being an ambassador
for the sport and world champion?

KR: For sure, I will have more appearances and it is not going to
really change my life too much and people will probably look
differently at me and make more stories about me and my stuff, but I am
not going to change myself. I never have before and I don’t know what
is going to happen in the future. So I will have to be more careful
whatever I do. So we will see what happens. Maybe you should ask
Fernando because he can tell – he won it before and he can say if he
changed a lot or not. I am not going to worry about it and I am going
to lead my life as I want and that’s it.

Alonso congratulates ‘deserving’ Raikkonen – "First of all, congratulations to Kimi," said Alonso. "I said many
times who has more points in the last race deserves the championship,
so in this case Kimi did a great championship. It was up and down for
everyone, at the end he deserves it, so congrats to him."

Classified:
Pos  Driver        Team                      Time
 1.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1h28:15.270
 2.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  +     1.493
 3.  Alonso        McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +    57.019
 4.  Rosberg       Williams-Toyota      (B)  +  1:02.848
 5.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  +  1:10.957
 6.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  +  1:11.317
 7.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  +     1 Lap
 8.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  +     1 Lap
 9.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  +     1 Lap
10.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota      (B)  +     1 Lap
11.  R.Schumacher  Toyota               (B)  +     1 Lap
12.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    2 Laps
13.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  +    2 Laps
14.  Davidson      Super Aguri-Honda    (B)  +    3 Laps

Fastest lap: Raikkonen, 1:12.445

Not classified/retirements:
Driver        Team                      On lap
Sutil         Spyker-Ferrari       (B)    43
Barrichello   Honda                (B)    40
Kovalainen    Renault              (B)    35
Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)    34
Button        Honda                (B)    20
Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)    14
Yamamoto      Spyker-Ferrari       (B)     2
Fisichella    Renault              (B)     2

World Championship standings, round 17 - FINAL:                
Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Raikkonen    110        1.  Ferrari              204
 2.  Hamilton     109        2.  BMW Sauber           101
 3.  Alonso       109        3.  Renault               51
 4.  Massa         94        4.  Williams-Toyota       33
 5.  Heidfeld      61        5.  Red Bull-Renault      24
 6.  Kubica        39        6.  Toyota                13
 7.  Kovalainen    30        7.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari     8
 8.  Fisichella    21        8.  Honda                  6
 9.  Rosberg       20        9.  Super Aguri-Honda      4
10.  Coulthard     14       10.  Spyker-Ferrari         1
11.  Wurz          13       11.  McLaren-Mercedes       -
12.  Webber        10       
13.  Trulli         8       
14.  Vettel         6       
15.  Button         6       
16.  R.Schumacher   5       
17.  Sato           4       
18.  Liuzzi         3       
19.  Sutil          1 

Video

___________________________________________
Full Race Press Conference – Kimi’s first hand thoughts on winning his first championship!

Size – 113MB

Duration – 15.02mins

Download *right-click Save Link As*
Alternative link:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/n5wljh

Short highlights of the race from French TV

Size – 23MB

Download

___________________________________________
Photos

___________________________________________



RAR file of Sunday – includes over 100 photos!

Size – 21MB

Download via Mediafire or

Download via Sendspace or

Download via Rapidshare

Saturday – Qualifyinq, Kimi P3!




Kimi really should be on the right in this post-qualifying photo shoot – he qualified 3rd unfortunatly!

Felipe Massa beat the title contenders to pole position at Interlagos after a commanding performance in qualifying. Championship leader Lewis Hamilton will join Massa on the front row, with Kimi Raikkonen beating Fernando Alonso to third.

Massa was a comfortable four tenths of a second clear of his rivals
after the first runs in Q3, and then improved his time by 0.2 seconds
with his second lap. Hamilton managed to go faster in the middle sector, but didn’t quite
have enough speed in the final part of the lap and missed pole by a
tenth of a second.

Alonso had only been fifth quickest behind Red Bull’s Mark Webber at
first, but improved on his final run to take fourth, 0.034 seconds
slower than third-placed Raikkonen.

So, I think that says what we really need to know – Raikkonen and Alonso do carry more fuel than their teammates as expected, but Hamilton’s lap was great which put him on the front row, where Kimi should really be. Hamilton wasn’t really blocking or in the way of Kimi in Q3 however it did cause enough damage to his lap – by atleast 2 tenths of a second as he did a little slide. Just think about the French GP start, Kimi was 3rd and Hamilton and Massa were infront of him. He passed Hamilton and later beat Massa to win the race! Hopefully Kimi can do the same again tomorrow. Nonetheless, the grid right from the front to the end is looking fit for an exciting race tomorrow! Keep Flying Kimi and we’re cheering you on!

Saturday Quotes

Hamilton apologises to Raikkonen –  Asked about the incident (of Hamilton being slightely in the way during Kimi’s Q3 lap), Raikkonen stated:

"For sure it didn’t help. I ran wide after I went beside him and lost some time. I don’t know exactly [how much time] we lost – I haven’t seen the
data – but for sure there could have been a slightly easier way to let
me past. But it is what it is now. I would rather be in the front, but third
is an OK place to start the race from. We should have a good car and
see what we can do tomorrow."

Hamilton himself said he was warned by the team of Raikkonen’s presence and did the best he could to get out of his way.

"I came out of the pitlane, and the team said ‘you will be coming
close to Kimi, at that speed your mirrors are vibrating and you can’t
see. I apologise if I got in his way, but I didn’t think he was that
close to me. I stayed where I was and braked. I didn’t feel I hindered
his lap, and I did get out of the way.

"I did the best job I could do," added Hamilton. "And I did apologise to him."

Saturday quotes from Ferrari – Kimi Raikkonen – 3rd: "Of course it would have been
better to be on pole position but third place is certainly no bad thing
and leaves me in a good position for tomorrow’s race, also in light of
the strategy we have chosen and the performance of the car.

"On my final flying lap, I lost precious time at turn 4 because of
Hamilton: it is a real shame, but there is no point in recriminations
over what has happened. I am confident that I will be able to keep my
chances alive right to the end."

Hamilton meets his fiercest rival yet – The French journalist, Anne Giuntinu, asked: "Do you think you can do anything you
want, and then just apologise? Is it the way it works in Formula One?"
Hamilton replied: "I’m not going to answer that," and when asked
as to why, he added: "I don’t really want to talk to you to be honest."    

Video

___________________________________________

___________________________________________
Photos

___________________________________________