I must start by offering my congratulations to Lewis Hamilton. The points cannot lie and they show that he finished the season with 98 of them to Felipe Massa's 97. Commiserations to Felipe, who in the last race did everything that he possibly could to overcome a seven point deficit. Not that he had to do much - just get pole and win. How many F1 drivers would give anything to do that in their careers, let alone be able achieve it under such pressure? It was the last race of the season, in front of Massa's home crowd, and in the most changeable and difficult of weather conditions. His was a brilliant, faultless performance, as was Ferrari's - this time.

Ferrari did win the Constructors' title and this is fair. McLaren did the job and got their man home, but they didn't do it by dint of a consistently superior performance. Hamilton's McLaren had a better reliability record than Massa's Ferrari and the Scuderia also made grievous errors in pit-stop procedures. If not for these, Massa would have gone into the last round 24 points clear - despite Spa. It's not a rabid tifoso saying this, it's Autosport's Grand Prix Editor Mark Hughes.

McLaren very nearly managed to lose the title for the second year in succession and it was only through the most freaky turn of fate that their man won and Ferrari's lost. Hamilton qualified badly, the team called him in a lap late to change to dry tyres and above all, his car was just plain slow, leaving him struggling desperately where he should have had a comfortable buffer. Hamilton struggled in the very conditions in which McLaren had a season-long advantage over Ferrari - when conditions cause tyre temperature to drop. It seems that McLaren set their cars up with less downforce than was needed.

An analysis of Hamilton's weekend shows what an incredibly close-run thing it was throughout, he really was hanging on by his fingertips. In Q3 he was too hard on his tyres on the out -lap; result third when Ferrari were 1-2 with Massa first. Massa went out again and improved slightly, Hamilton went again and was second, but was half a second off, he then dropped down to fourth as he was displaced by Raikkonen (third) and Trulli (second). Kovalainen could only manage fifth, but from where should at least be able to fend off Alonso and Vettel, which must have been a relief as the Spaniard had made all sorts of remarks about helping Massa win the title. Having that fast and aggressive pair behind him must still have been a very uncomfortable feeling for Hamilton when he could only afford to drop one place.

Rain had initially been forecast for race day, then not, so the rain drops were greeted with surprise and consternation when they started to fall as the field was assembled on the grid. The start was delayed to allow the teams to change to wet tyres, which all did except for Kubica who did so after one lap. Crazy Dave Coolthud's last GP finished on lap 1 in typical fashion for this year, a collision, hit by a Williams or two. This is ironic as it was with them he started his F1 career. I guess I ought to find something generous to say about him, but I can't. Back on track, there was a Safety Car, then Massa stayed in the lead, from Trulli, Raikkonen and Hamilton. Kovy didn't prove to be much of a rear-gunner as Alonso and Vettel were soon through.

The rain stopped and Fisichella was the first to pit for dry tyres, on lap 2. Next year, at last, we'll be able to say slicks again and those ludicrous grooved monstrosities will at last be consigned to history. His sector times showed that this was the right choice and on lap 9 Alonso and Vettel came in, followed by Massa a lap later. McLaren left Hamilton out until lap 11 and when he emerged he was down to sixth - a losing position! The in-car stuff showed that none of them were having an easy time, but also that the McLaren looked twitchier than the Ferrari - less downforce remember.

Hamilton HAD to get past Fisichella, whose frustration has made him a touch truculent in the recent past, and did so with a heart-stopping, but brilliantly skilful manoeuvre up the inside, where he had to go off the dry line, pass, then not drop it afterwards. This must have all seemed like an eternity for him and he must have waited for the thump and the helpless spin to title oblivion, but none came and he was back in the money in fifth. There was a places shuffle up to fourth when Vettel, out of phase with the others, stopped, down to fifth after his own stop, and back up to fourth when Vettel stopped again. Then it started to spit with rain....

Alonso, Raikkonen, Hamilton and Vettel dived into the pits, but crucially Glock stayed out and when the stoppers re-joined he was up to fourth, Hamilton fifth and Vettel sixth. Massa came in a lap later and such was his lead that he rejoined in the same position. It was immediately apparent Vettel's Toro Rosso was much better suited to the conditions than Hamilton's McLaren. Three laps from the end Hamilton got held up behind Kubica when the latter unlapped himself, Vettel pounced and was through! Hamilton was sixth. On his penultimate lap Glock recorded a 1:28.041 and Hamilton a 1:25.567and it looked like the Championship was slipping away from the Brit.

Massa crossed the line to win and the Ferrari pit celebrated his World Championship victory. But out on the track, with just a couple of corners to go, we saw Hamilton pass an almost stationary Glock to take fifth, cross the line and steal the title! Now both Ferrari and McLaren pits were celebrating and there was an incredibly poignant moment when Massa's father was told the awful truth....

Perhaps inevitable, conspiracy theorists questioned why Glock's last lap was 17 seconds slower than the one before. I thought it was as we are told, that with the accursed grooved tyres there comes a point where lack of speed and downforce leads to tyre temperatures and pressures dropping below a crucial level, whereupon there is a sudden and almost total loss of grip. Others I have talked to, including experienced racers, were not so sure. Yet Trulli, in the same car as Glock and on the same strategy, recorded virtually the same last lap time, 1:44.800 vs. 1:44.731, and he was behind Hamilton throughout. Incredibly, racists have claimed that the only reason Hamilton won was that Glock let him through.

So we come to the end of a season in which neither of the title contenders was dominant, but they had the best cars and were not threatened by their team-mates. Both drove extremely well at times, but both made mistakes, so neither warrants superstar status. They were also fortunate in that Kubica and Alonso were in worse cars.

Finally, The Editor was asked by a well-meaning racer friend who watched the race in the BRDC Suite at Silverstone if he wanted an atmo piece. Why would we want to celebrate Ferrari losing? Many still do not understand that if you are a true tifoso, then you want a Ferrari driver to win, whoever he is; race, colour and creed simply do not come into it.

On to next year - Forza Ferrari!

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Interlagos is a proper circuit

Wet tyres were the only option at the start

Crazy Dave exits the race and F1

Wonder if Lewis had his eyes closed at this point?

Felipe led throughout

Alonso was second ahead of Raikkonen

Critical moment as Vettel passes Hamilton

Felipe did everything required of him

Glock congratulates the new Champion

Must be hard being an F1 driver

Massa was dignified and gracious in defeat

click for FIA lap chart

Meanwhile....

Not quite the image Honda had in mind for F1 and the planet

The Bimmer team say they'll park wherever they like mate!

Tension mounts as at a GP TV lunch, the FOC GB Anglia Group wills honorary member Massa on

It was all too much for some

pics by Ferrari Media, FIA, Reuters, XPB, LAT, NFI, Andrew Holman & Sutton