Lewis Hamilton from the German. However, on the final lap he and Vettel made up an 18-second gap to overtake Timo Glock, who was struggling on dry tyres, on the last corner to re-take fifth place and deny race-winner Massa the title by one point. This made Hamilton the youngest driver to win the World Drivers' Championship, the first black driver, and the first British driver to win the World Championship since Damon Hill in 1996. Hamilton was verbally heckled and otherwise abused during pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya by several Spanish spectators who wore black face paint and black
2008 Brazilian Grand Prix 43, Massa had regained the lead, ahead of Alonso. Räikkönen rejoined ahead of Hamilton in third place. Fisichella's stop was marred by transmission problems, dropping him to 18th position when he resumed. Vettel made a pit stop again on lap 51, his team fuelling him to the finish. He rejoined in fifth. By lap 54, Massa had extended his already comfortable lead over Alonso to 9.6 seconds. Vettel was closing in quickly on Hamilton, the McLaren driver needing to finish no lower than fifth to win the championship. Light rain began to fall on lap 63. Heidfeld made a pit