Raikkonen bounces back to win Formula One title

As this year’s Formula One season unfolded, Kimi Raikkonen quickly faded from being a favorite to win the world championship to becoming the series’ forgotten man.

The Finnish driver, who had narrowly missed the title twice before, was overshadowed by the stunning performance of Lewis Hamilton, who tried to make history by becoming the first rookie to win the Formula One crown.

But the taciturn Raikkonen, known as the “Iceman,” stayed in contention and Sunday won the Brazilian Grand Prix season finale and the championship by a point over Hamilton and Fernando Alonso.

Raikkonen began the race seven points behind Hamilton, but his victory, combined with Hamilton’s problems -- he was shuffled back at the start, later suffered mechanical problems and finished seventh -- proved enough to win the closest title chase in 21 years.

“This year it looked like it was getting away, but we have a great team so we put everything together and just believed in ourselves,” Raikkonen, 28, said at the post-race news conference in Sao Paolo.

“We were working even though nobody else was thinking about us anymore, but we knew that we still had a chance.”

When the season started, many picked Raikkonen to win the title because he had moved from McLaren Mercedes to the powerhouse team of Ferrari, succeeding seven-time champion Michael Schumacher.

McLaren had Hamilton and Alonso, the 2005-06 champion who had switched from Renault.

Raikkonen won the season- opening Australian Grand Prix from the pole. But then Hamilton, 22, the first black driver in Formula One, quickly came to the fore. He won his first race in Canada, followed it with a victory in the U.S. Grand Prix at Indianapolis and held the points lead for most of the season.

“Obviously, I am pretty disappointed with the result today, having led for so much of the season and then not win the championship,” Hamilton said. “However, I have to put the result into perspective; this is only my first year in Formula One and overall it has just been phenomenal.”

Off the track, Raikkonen and the others had to contend with a spy scandal that rocked the series. McLaren was fined $100 million and stripped of its manufacturers’ points after the team was found to possess technical data about Ferrari’s cars. No drivers were punished.

And befitting the series’ turbulent year, four drivers with the BMW-Sauber and Williams teams who finished in the top 10 at the Brazilian race were investigated for fuel irregularities.

Formula One did not penalize anyone, but McLaren said Monday it would appeal. If any of those drivers were punished with a loss of position, it could give Hamilton a higher finish and the championship.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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james.peltz@latimes.com