2007 Japanese Grand Prix contention to clinch the drivers' title in the remaining two rounds. His Ferrari teammate, Felipe Massa, dropped out of championship contention after finishing the race in sixth position. Massa was now ten points behind Räikkönen. As far as the World Constructors' Championship was concerned, Ferrari were leading the standings on 170 points. McLaren would have been leading the table on 202 points had they not been given a penalty in the Hungarian Grand Prix and their eventual disqualification from the championship due to the espionage controversy that year. BMW Sauber remained second in the standings, 78 points behind Ferrari, after
1996 Monaco Grand Prix retired, leaving only four cars circulating, with Frentzen running last. The German, who so easily could have been leading the race, decided to pull into the pits on the penultimate lap as he was running last anyway, and everyone else had already seen the checkered flag. Therefore, only Panis, Coulthard and Herbert were counted as finishing the race (even though Frentzen was the last car still circulating on track), with the Frenchman winning his one and only Grand Prix and Ligier's first win in 15 seasons. Frentzen, Salo and Häkkinen were classified in the final points positions with Irvine credited