Raikkonen wins Formula One title

Kimi Raikkonen is known as the “Iceman,” and he more than kept his cool Sunday. He won the Brazilian Grand Prix at Sao Paulo and also won the Formula One title in the tightest race for the championship in 21 years.

The Ferrari driver rallied from third place in the points standings for his first F1 crown, taking advantage of Lewis Hamilton’s mistake on the first lap and Fernando Alonso’s disappointing run.

Raikkonen grabbed the lead with 21 laps to go and was followed by teammate Felipe Massa. Alonso, Hamilton’s McLaren teammate, finished third.

“This is a great feeling,” Raikkonen said. “We had some hard times, some reliability problems and lost some points. A lot of people didn’t believe in us, but we showed that they were wrong and we were able to come back. It was a great season.”

Hamilton came into the race leading the points standings and needed a top-two finish to become the first rookie to win the title and F1’s youngest champion. He went off the track on the first lap and later had car problems to finish seventh.

Alonso, second in the standings coming in, would have had to have finished second and Hamilton fifth to keep Raikkonen from winning the championship after his victory. Raikkonen erased a seven-point gap coming into the race to finish with 110 points, one more than Hamilton and Alonso.

Alonso was trying to become only the third driver to win three consecutive titles in the history of F1, along with Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher.

The Brazilian GP marked the end of one of the most thrilling F1 seasons in decades.

It was the first time since 1986 that three drivers reached the final race in contention for the title. It hadn’t happened since Alain Prost edged Nigel Mansell and Nelson Piquet to win that year’s championship.

As usual, Sebastien Bourdais outdid himself. Needing only to finish 12th or better, the Formula One-bound Frenchman won the Lexmark Indy 300 at Surfers Paradise, Australia, to clinch his fourth consecutive Champ Car drivers’ title.

Bourdais took the lead for good with 20 minutes left in the 1-hour 45-minute timed race and went on to become the first driver to win the race twice in its 17-year history. Bourdais, who has clinched the drivers’ championship in Australia the last three years, also won the Surfers race in 2005.

“It was one of those races where I decided to have fun with it and give it all we had,” Bourdais said. “To win the race, to win the championship, and be the first repeat winner in Surfers -- what a day.”

He set a race lap record time of 1 minute 31.145 seconds on his 58th lap, breaking the previous mark of 1:32.063 set by Cristiano da Matta in 2001.

Bourdais, who will drive for the Toro Rosso team in F1 next year, held a 58-point lead over second-place Justin Wilson going into Sunday’s race. There is one event left in the Champ Car season -- Nov. 11 in Mexico City.

Bruno Junqueira, despite stalling at the standing start in his 100th Champ Car race, was third, followed by Dutchman Robert Doornbos.