Raikkonen win ends Hamilton dream

(CNN) -- And so it ended how it began, with the initial favorite -- and highest paid driver -- taking the glory of the 2007 Formula One World Championship. But, for much of the season right up to immediately before yesterday's Brazilian Grand Prix, Kimi Raikkonen seemed the man least likely to succeed of the three drivers in contention for the title.

Despite winning the first race of the season in Melbourne, Raikkonen's season took a dip.

The Ferrari suffered reliability issues -- forcing retirements in Barcelona and at the Neuerburgring -- and the press was dripping with innuendo about the young Finn's private life (was his party-hard lifestyle to blame for his poor performance, critics thought aloud)? He was poor value for Ferrari, pundits mused, and was outclassed by younger, hungrier drivers.

What pundits failed to spot was the glaringly obvious -- despite his troubles, Raikkonen had won more Grands Prix than his championship rivals, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

While Hamilton led the championship for most of the season, he had won only four races (the same number as Alonso), but the 'Flying Finn' had clocked up five victories. His sixth, at Interlagos yesterday, took his total points to the season above those of his Spanish and British rivals.

Not since 1986 -- when Nigel Mansell, Nelson Piquet and Alain Prost were in contention for the title -- had there been a three way split for the championship decided on the final race of the season. Now, as then, the outsider has been victorious (Mansell was forced to retire, and Prost took the title).

It is the job of a sports reporter to be impartial, not to be swayed by personal preferences and prejudices. But behind every balanced and neutral report beats a partial heart. And this heart was beating for Hamilton.

I'm British (okay, strictly speaking I'm half-American but there hasn't been an American driver to be excited about for decades) and a Hamilton win at Interlagos would have made me happy. Very happy indeed.

In sport the British -- and the English in particular -- cast themselves as the plucky underdogs. Yet, for a nation that celebrates the second-class and the mediocre, it is particularly unforgiving of those who come in second place and wreck the national dream.

In typically English sporting fashion, the day before the Brazilian Grand Prix, the England rugby team faced South Africa in the final of the Rugby World Cup. Having faced South Africa earlier in the competition -- and losing badly -- plucky little England worked its way through the competition and found itself once again facing South Africa for championship glory. And losing it.

Frankly I don't care much for rugby. It brings back too many memories of muddy Wednesday afternoons -- my feeble frame pitted against boys with physiques like refrigerators. But even I found myself rooting for the national side and sharing in the collective disappointment when they lost.

So as I sat down to watch the Brazilian Grand Prix I was aware of a national swell of expectation. Lewis Hamilton could heal the pain caused by the national football team's disastrous qualifier against Russia and the heartbreak of losing the rugby.

Hamilton's debut season in Formula 1 has injected excitement into a sport increasingly clouded by over-complex rules and intrusive corporate sponsorship.

First it was his ethnicity that excited the press -- he is the first black man to compete in this most exclusive of sports. Then it was his talent that saw him breaking record after record for a rookie driver. For weeks it looked like his destiny to be the first rookie ever to win a World Championship.

He could have clinched championship victory in China a fortnight ago, except for tyre damage which forced a retirement. Hence yesterday's race became the taut contest on which everything hanged.

I have not felt such excitement watching a Formula 1 race. When explaining my enthusiasm for the sport I have often stated that it's the only sport you can watch while reading the Sunday newspaper in one's slippers. Most grands prix are relatively free of momentous incidents. You can listen to the commentary and only divert your gaze from world affairs when the commentators' chatter becomes more excited.

Yesterday's Brazilian Grand Prix was different. Rather than being a passive observer I was an active fan, willing Hamilton to victory and sharing in his frustration and disappointment. My heart sank when he was passed by Raikkonen and Alonso on the first lap.

I felt his petulant anger as he tried to snatch third place back from Alonso, lost his line, and dropped down to eighth. I could feel the panic and frustration as gearbox problems found him stalling down and further down the grid. Surely he was starting to expect another retirement?

And then the fightback. I sat forward in my chair -- not a newspaper in sight -- wanting Lewis to grind back every lost second, to pick off all the back markers and make his way up the grid. Even in the closing 10 laps I didn't give up hope. Somebody might spin off, make a mistake or have their car splutter to a halt. For the first time in my life F1 was no mere diversion, it was urgent and essential.

Raikkonen won the race and his first world championship. Hamilton's seventh place didn't secure him enough points to win the title. He tied in second place (with Alonso) with 109 points. Just one, solitary point behind Raikonnen.

No doubt Hamilton is disappointed. And the people of England are disappointed. But the people of England need to learn from Buzz Aldrin: there's no shame in coming second. In Hamilton, they have a true hero, a record-breaking driver whose rookie season will go down in history. His world championship can wait. E-mail to a friend