Pre-season testing had firmly installed Ferrari as favourites for the crowns. Qualifying-day on Saturday however, dented their hopes of a one-two finish when Brazilian Felipe Massa's gearbox failed in Q2. Starting from the back of the grid after an engine change, his chances of a podium were nil. Instead, it was the McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton and BMW's Nick Heidfeld who challenged for the front two rows, with Räikkönen taking the pole ahead of Alonso.

At the start, a brilliant getaway by Kimi saw him secure first, with Heidfeld outdragging Alonso to go second, with rookie Lewis Hamilton beginning his career in style with third place by the second turn. Despite a malfunctioning radio and problems with an overheating engine, Kimi went on to take the victory by a comfortable seven seconds, although it could have been a lot more. Alonso recovered to second, jumping Hamilton during the second stops, and Heidfeld during the first stops, with the German going for a short one-stop strategy.

Behind them, the talking point of the race was the collision between veterans David Coulthard and Alex Wurz, with the former flying over the Williams, almost hitting Alex's hands. Luckily, both escaped without injury, although, as a direct result of the collision, and the weaknesses it exposed in a Formula One car's design, cockpit sides are to be increased for 2008.

Top 8: Räikkönen, Alonso, Hamilton, Heidfeld, Fisichella, Massa, Rosberg, Schumacher.

After Räikkönen's dominance three weeks earlier, many expected Ferrari to perform a clean sweep of a one-two finish, however, in truth, it turned out to be McLaren's turn on the top step. On Saturday, pole went to Massa, with Räikkönen in third, the pair split by Alonso in the McLaren. At the start, it was Alonso's superior start that vaulted him into the lead at the first corner, with fourth-place Hamilton jumping to second by the second turn having outfoxed Massa and Räikkönen at the start.

With immense pressure from Massa, Hamilton amazingly managed to hold off the Brazilian for five laps, before an overzealous move on him by Massa into turn 4 sent the Brazilian back to fifth, behind BMW's now longer-fuelled Heidfeld. Despite holding the inside line, and favourite to take the position, Massa braked too late and ran out onto the gravel, ending his hopes of victory. With Räikkönen unable to push 100% due to fears about his overheating engine, Alonso and Hamilton cruised to their first one-two finish of the season, with Hamilton been pushed all the way to the flag by Räikkönen. Behind him, Heidfeld took fourth, ahead of Massa.

Top 8: Alonso, Hamilton, Räikkönen, Heidfeld, Massa, Fisichella, Trulli, Kovalainen.

Just seven days after botching his race in Malaysia, Massa was keen to make a mends in Bahrain, and went about it in all the right ways, taking pole position on Saturday. That was followed by a relatively comfortable drive to victory on the Sunday afternoon. Having been hassled by Hamilton during the first stint, a shorter second run saw him pull away from the Briton, before he eased to a 2-second win. The pair had to battle through a safety car, triggered by a first-lap accident at turn 4.

It was that safety car phase that was Kimi Räikkönen's undoing. The Finn looked notably off-colour, almost asleep at the restart, as he drifted over a second behind Alonso, in third at the time, forcing him to wait until the first set of stops to overtake him. The time lost meant he was unable to challenge Hamilton or Massa well enough to climb any higher. Behind him, Alonso found himself pushed back to fifth by Heidfeld, who passed him on lap 32 around the outside at turn 4, securing his third consecutive fourth-place finish.

Top 8: Massa, Hamilton, Räikkönen, Heidfeld, Alonso, Kubica, Trulli, Fisichella.

Almost a month later F1 returned to European soil, with Alonso's stronghold of Barcelona next on the list. After such a disappointing weekend in Bahrain, many expected Alonso to dominate the weekend, but it was Massa who disappointed the crowd with pole, victory and the fastest lap. Up until the race's first corner however, Alonso had a fighting chance of taking victory, only for an over-ambitious move on the Brazilian to see him end up scurrying across the gravel, just about emerging ahead of the BMWs, but behind Massa, Hamilton and Räikkönen.

Lucky for the champion however, Ferrari's reliability once again waned, with Kimi Räikkönen retiring ten laps into the race, handing the podium place to Alonso, however a slower strategy saw him fall ten second behind team-mate Hamilton at the flag. Further behind, David Coulthard scored Red Bull's first points of the season with fifth, despite having a gearbox problem during the closing stages of the race. The Scot lost almost ten seconds, but still managed to cross the line over a second clear of sixth-place Rosberg. In eighth place, Takuma Sato sparked off a major celebration at Super Aguri after he secured the team's first ever world championship point, finishing ahead of Fisichella, but a lap down on the winner.

In the championship, victory brought Massa within three points of Hamilton, with Alonso trailing by only two. Räikkönen however, thanks to his retirement, was eight points adrift.

Top 8: Massa, Hamilton, Alonso, Kubica, Coulthard, Rosberg, Kovalainen, Sato.

The Principality beckoned for round five of the season, and after his thrilling start to his career, many hoped, while others expected, a Hamilton victory. However, it was not to be, with Alonso asserting himself as the Monte Carlo king with the victory, from pole. For good measure, the Spaniard also bagged fastest lap, finishing four seconds ahead of his team-mate. However, for McLaren, the victory did not come without discomfort, due to comments from Lewis Hamilton about team orders prompting the British media to force an FIA investigation into the alleged rule-breaking. In the end, McLaren were rightly cleared, but the tensions between the pair that became so well known as the season progressed were gone well beyond their formative stages.

An underperforming Ferrari team, now fully suffering from their loss of two weeks of development in their wind tunnel thanks to a breakage in April, had to be content with third, with Massa finishing almost a lap down, 69 seconds behind. Räikkönen meanwhile, having crashed in qualifying, staged a memorable comeback to finish in eighth, after starting 16th. That point proved to be oh-so-crucial come the season's end in October.

Behind the top drivers, Giancarlo Fisichella gave Renault some hope with fourth place thanks to his two-stop strategy, with the BMWs of Kubica and Heidfeld securing fifth and sixth, the two having stopped just once. Alex Wurz picked up his first points in seventh, ahead of Räikkönen.

Top 8: Alonso, Hamilton, Massa, Fisichella, Kubica, Heidfeld, Wurz, Räikkönen.

Ever since day one, it was inevitable that Lewis Hamilton would one day win a race, and it so happened in Canada that the young rookie would climb upon the top step of the podium. It is somewhat ironic that it happened just after the investigation into team orders at McLaren, but in truth, it was the youngster that made the victory for himself. Taking an impressive pole by four tenths of a second in qualifying, Hamilton took the lead at the start of the race, as Alonso scrambled across the grass, immediately down to third place, behind Heidfeld. Two further trips across the grass at turn one saw him drop behind Massa. Worsening the story for the Spaniard was the emergence of the safety car on lap 23, the lap for his first stop. For fear of running out of fuel, he stopped, thus incurring a ten-second stop-go penalty, ending his challenge for victory.

Massa too was unlucky with the safety car, as he was disqualified for jumping a red light at the end of the pitlane during the safety car period. That was followed by the second of four safety cars, after Robert Kubica's horrifying accident at the turn 10 hairpin. Amazingly, the Pole emerged with only light concussion, however, he was later ruled out for the United States Grand Prix the following week.

As the race wore on, Hamilton continued to pull away, until the final two safety car periods, luckily after his second stop, reducing his ten-second lead to nothing once more. However, the Englishman kept his cool, and took a four-second win, ahead of Heidfeld, with Wurz taking the final podium place for Williams. Another rookie, Kovalainen, finishing fourth, after an accident in qualifying on Saturday, with Räikkönen having an uneventful race to fifth. A jubilant Super Aguri celebrated their second haul of points, with Sato securing sixth, after a stunning pass on Alonso into the final turn, three laps from the end.

Top 8: Hamilton, Heidfeld, Wurz, Kovalainen, Räikkönen, Sato, Alonso, Schumacher.

Just seven days after his debut win in Canada, and Lewis Hamilton repeated the dose with a closely fought victory at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, fending off the strenuous challenge of team-mate Fernando Alonso. All race long, Alonso was within two seconds of the rookie, at one stage even pulling himself alongside Hamilton down the main straight, only for Hamilton to hold the line and keep the lead.

Despite beating the nearest opposition by almost 15 seconds however, Ferrari could have challenged for the victory. Kimi Räikkönen however, got held up behind Renault's Heikki Kovalainen during his first stint, losing the Finn ten seconds. For ten laps during his second stint he was then held up by the one-stopping Rosberg, before proceeding to catch team-mate Massa. His final stint saw him pull up right behind Massa, but unable to find a way by, forcing him to be content with fourth.

Behind them, a jubilant Sebastian Vettel became the sport's youngest points scorer, benefiting from the retirements of team-mate Heidfeld and German Nico Rosberg to take eighth place.

Top 8: Hamilton, Alonso, Massa, Räikkönen, Kovalainen, Trulli, Webber, Vettel.

After the glimpses of brilliance showed in the United States, Kimi Räikkönen realised his full potential in France, with a tremendous victory at Magny Cours. Qualifying saw him line-up in third, directly behind team-mate Massa on the clean side of the grid. At lights out, the Finn overtook Lewis Hamilton, before settling into a rhythm behind his team-mate. Going three laps longer than Massa during the first stint, saw him re-emerge just a second behind the Brazilian, before an equally long run in clean air towards the end of his second stint, with Massa stuck in traffic, saw Kimi emerge in the lead, before cruising to a 2-second win, somewhat unexpected given Massa's pace early in the race.

Hamilton tied up the final podium position, being the only frontrunning driver to stop three times. He finished ten seconds clear of Kubica, who was eight seconds ahead of team-mate Heidfeld. World Champion Fernando Alonso finished down in seventh, after a gearbox problem in qualifying put him to tenth on the grid. The race saw him spend the majority of it stuck to the gearbox of Heidfeld, before latching onto former team-mate Fisichella's rear end for his final stint. Behind him, Jenson Button bagged his and Honda's first point of the season with eighth place after a solid performance from 12th on the grid.

Top 8: Räikkönen, Massa, Hamilton, Kubica, Heidfeld, Fisichella, Alonso, Button.

Just like Lewis Hamilton on his North American tour, Räikkönen completed the double a week later in Great Britain, with another convincing victory, this time on Hamilton's home ground. Despite losing pole to Hamilton on Saturday, after making a mistake on the exit of the final turn, Räikkönen blitzed the opposition on Sunday, Fuel-corrected, Räikkönen would have take pole easily, but instead had to wait until the first round of stop to jump Hamilton. Then however, he had Alonso to beat, after the Spaniard short-fuelled to emerge ahead of the Ferrari on lap 21. Again though, Kimi kept his cool, and emerged with a comfortable lead from his final stop, eventually finishing 2.5 seconds ahead of Alonso after a slow final lap.

Behind the top two, Hamilton finished almost 40 seconds behind, with a gap of 14 seconds to fourth-place Robert Kubica. Felipe Massa, after stalling on the grid, fought his way back up to fifth.

The highlight of the race was that of the fight between the two Williams and Hondas. The quartet locked horns for a period of five laps during the middle of the race, with the two Hondas winning the battle ahead of the Williams. In the championship, Hamilton's lead was cut to 12 points from Alonso, with Räikkönen in third, 18 points behind.

Top 8: Räikkönen, Alonso, Hamilton, Kubica, Massa, Heidfeld, Kovalainen, Fisichella.

After a largely dry first half to the season, the European Grand Prix in Germany was the first to feature rain on Sunday, with torrential rain forcing the first suspension of a race in years. The drama on-track began on Saturday with Hamilton's accident, hitting a tyre barrier at high speed after a tyre failure. Weather forecasts predicted unsettled conditions for Sunday, and sure enough, come race day, the clouds had gathered thickly above the Nurburgring. While the track was dry up until the start of the formation lap, rain began falling as the field rounded the track in anticipation of the start. By the time the lights went out, the rain was pouring, forcing drivers to tip-toe their way round to the pits.

Spyker had the right idea in bringing in debutant Markus Winkelhock after the formation lap to put on wet tyres, with the German taking the lead on lap 2. When the safety car emerged on lap 3, Winkelhock had a lead of over 30 seconds, with six drivers having slid off at turn 1, one of those being Lewis Hamilton who managed to get going again, albeit a lap down. By the time the track had dried up, pole sitter Räikkönen had slipped to third after missing the pitlane on the first lap. His race was over by lap 35 with a hydraulics failure, with team-mate Massa growing his lead lap-by-lap over the course of his second stint. However, as the rain returned for the final seven laps, Fernando Alonso got the better of Massa, overtaking him between turns 5 and 6, with the pair even touching.

From there, Alonso pulled clear, winning by 8 seconds, and revitalising his title hopes, as team-mate and title leader Lewis Hamilton failed to score after a race-damaging call to go onto dry tyres too early. Behind the leading drivers, veterans Mark Webber and Alex Wurz battled for third, with Coulthard getting there by just three tenths, after a mistake at the final turn almost let the Austrian by. Hamilton's lead was down to just 2 with this result. Massa and Räikkönen were 11 and 18 points behind respectively.

Top 8: Alonso, Massa, Webber, Wurz, Coulthard, Heidfeld, Kubica, Kovalainen.

More predictable conditions greeted the drivers in Hungary, before a three-week summer break ahead of the final leg of the season. At McLaren the building tension between Alonso and Hamilton finally erupted, with Alonso holding up Lewis in the pits. With the Spaniard earning pole with a brilliant lap, he was demoted to sixth by the stewards, after he was deemed to have illegally held up Hamilton in the pits.

In the race, despite starting in third, Räikkönen immediately made his way up to second, hassling Hamilton for the lead. Driving what was largely believed to be the slower car, Räikkönen kept at Hamilton for the entire race distance, ending the race with fastest lap only seven tenths behind Lewis. In contrast, starting from 14th on the grid after a mistake in qualifying by the team, Massa was unable to find his way through the field, ending the race in 13th. Alonso managed to climb to fourth at the flag, with Nick Heidfeld taking the final podium place in third, 43 seconds behind Hamilton.

Top 8: Hamilton, Räikkönen, Heidfeld, Alonso, Kubica, Schumacher, Rosberg, Kovalainen.

Qualifying again took centre stage on Saturday, with a nail-biting battle between the top quartet for pole position, with Felipe Massa securing his second consecutive Turkish GP pole right at the death, demoting Hamilton to second. In third was Kimi Räikkönen, after the Finn made an error in the final sector, despite being on course for pole. In fourth was Fernando Alonso, who opted for the harder Bridgestone tyre for his final run, but unable to improve, stayed fourth.

Unfortunately for Alonso, the penalty of starting on the dirty side of the grid did him no favours, as he fell behind both BMWs by the end of the first lap. By the end of his first stint he was well over 10 seconds behind the leading bunch, and although he was able to jump to fourth after his pitstop, a victory was out of contention. Ahead of him on the grid in second, Hamilton too suffered from starting on the dirty side, slipping behind the fast-starting Räikkönen by the first corner.

Hamilton however, managed to stay with the Ferraris for the opening stint, but fell back behind the pair during the second stint, partly due to a suspected heavier fuel load. But, his chances of a podium vanished half-way round lap 43 when his front-right Bridgestone failed, forcing him to drive half the circuit at reduced speed. He re-emerged in fifth, a position he managed to keep to the flag, despite reduced downforce from the damage inflicted by the flailing tyre. At the front, Massa held off Kimi to win, with Alonso taking an unlikely podium in third.

Top 8: Massa, Räikkönen, Alonso, Heidfeld, Hamilton, Kovalainen, Rosberg, Kubica.

Amid the latest revelations in the Stepney Spy Saga, F1 headed to the historical Autodromo Nazionale Monza for round 13 of the championship. A high-speed accident for Kimi Räikkönen on Saturday morning almost forced him out of the race, but the Finn managed to soldier on, taking fifth on the grid in qualifying, with what turned out to be an ultra-heavy fuel load. At the front, Alonso took pole position ahead of Hamilton, despite having two laps more fuel on-board for the opening stint.

At the start of the race the top three held their positions albeit with Hamilton cutting the chicane. Behind the, Räikkönen jumped to fourth ahead of Heidfeld, which soon became third with the retirement of Massa with a suspension problem. That was after the emergence of the safety car for four laps to help clear the wreckage of David Coulthard's car which crashed at the Curva Grande at the start of lap 2. While Hamilton kept with Alonso for the first stint, Alonso stepped up a gear for the middle stint of the race, eventually winning by six seconds at the flag.

Hamilton however, after his second pitstop emerged behind the one-stopping Räikkönen, however, on the following lap, staged a fantastic overtaking move down into turn 1, coming from very far back to take the apex of the corner he had missed at the start of the race. He then proceeded to pull well clear of Räikkönen, ending up 21 seconds ahead. With his victory, Alonso moved to within three points of Hamilton, with Räikkönen overtaking team-mate Massa into third, 18 points adrift.

Top 8: Alonso, Hamilton, Räikkönen, Heidfeld, Kubica, Rosberg, Kovalainen, Button.

Another race which was dominated by qualifying saw Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa secure the front row of the grid on Saturday, before cruising to an easy one-two finish, the pair relatively evenly matched throughout. Behind them on the grid, Alonso and Hamilton tussled for third, with Alonso pushing Hamilton, who started fourth, out wide at the newly revamped first turn. Hamilton however, then proceeded to push Alonso near the pitwall on the run-down to Eau Rouge, before the rookie was forced to lift, handing the place to Fernando.

Although unable to pull clear of Hamilton, Alonso held the position with ease, stopping before Lewis on both occasions. Half a minute behind the leading four, Heidfeld secured fifth, ahead of Rosberg and Webber, with Kubica, who qualified fourth but was demoted to 14th due to an engine penalty, fighting his way up to ninth. The highlight of the race for many was Takuma Sato's glittering overtaking manoeuvre on Honda's Jenson Button at the Les Combes hairpin on lap 31, having previously passed Rubens Barrichello early in the race.

Top 8: Räikkönen, Massa, Alonso, Hamilton, Heidfeld, Rosberg, Webber, Kovalainen.

With the European season now complete, all the remained were three races, in Japan, China and Brazil. The first of those in Japan, saw a world-class drive by the year's eventual champion. Weather ruled the weekend, with Saturday's action almost ceasing to exist with heavy cloud cover. While practice was cancelled, qualifying went ahead, with Hamilton taking a deserved pole position, ahead of Alonso and Räikkönen. On race-day, the awful conditions returned, with torrential rain throughout. While the safety car stayed out for a total of 19 laps, the race eventually got underway.

However, by this stage, both Ferraris were at the back of the field, due to starting the race on the wrong tyre. With his title hopes now all but over, Räikkönen drove the race of his life, jumping from 21st on lap 15 to sixth on lap 40. By the end of the race he was in third, hot on the tail of fellow countryman Heikki Kovalainen. His run through the field had seen some heart-stopping overtaking manoeuvres, one being on David Coulthard on the grass around the outside of turn 5. He attempted to pull off the same move on Kovalainen on the last lap of the race but for Heikki to take the position back.

By this stage, Alonso had already exited the race, after aquaplaning off the road into a wall in the monsoon weather. With the safety car emerging again, second- and third-placed Webber and Vettel closed right up on Hamilton, only to retire from the race on lap 46 after colliding together, having been distracted by Hamilton's erratic driving. The net result was a move up to second for Kovalainen, with Hamilton cruising to an 8-second victory. And, with a gap of 12 points to Alonso and 17 points to Räikkönen, everyone expected Hamilton to wrap up the title in China.

Top 8: Hamilton, Kovalainen, Räikkönen, Coulthard, Fisichella, Massa, Kubica, Sutil.

The weather was to play one final decisive role in the 2007 World Championship at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai. A dry qualifying saw Hamilton take his second consecutive pole position, with expectations higher than ever of a British world champion. A wet start to the race saw drivers take to the grid on intermediate Bridgestones. The track soon began to dry up, however, by the time the first rounds stops came around, conditions were not yet stable enough to risk dry tyres, nor were they bad enough to merit a new set of intermediates. The result was thus to keep on the worn intermediates, with all of the top drivers taking a similar decision.

However, 26 laps into the 56-lap race, the rain returned, not as heavy as at the beginning of the race. However, with worn tyres on all drivers, laptimes skyrocketted. For Hamilton, the weather was a recipe for disaster, as his ultra-worn intermediates were unable to cope with the worsening conditions. With the carcass showing on his right-rear tyre, Hamilton was called into the pits, but an over-zealous entry saw him beached in the gravel trap on the entrance to the pits.

With Hamiton's race over, Räikkönen and Alonso pitted from first and second to don dry tyres, and with Fernando unable to close down the Finn during the closing stages, Kimi picked up a valuable ten points ahead of the final round of the championship in Brazil. Massa in third, finished over half a minute ahead of Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel, who recovered well from crashing into Webber in the previous race.

Top 8: Räikkönen, Alonso, Massa, Vettel, Button, Liuzzi, Heidfeld, Coulthard.

Weather finally returned to predictable levels in Brazil for the season finale, with many still expecting a Hamilton victory. With a four-point lead over Alonso and seven points to spare over Räikkönen, those theories were not unfounded. Everything was going to plan, with second place on the grid on Saturday, but, just like in Turkey, second place soon became third, with the fast-starting Räikkönen cruising past the Briton well before the first turn. He was then deposed to fourth, after an equally fast-starting Alonso scythed past him at turn three. An ill-judged attempt to regain third saw Hamilton lock-up and run wide at turn 4, falling back to eighth by the end of lap 2.

All however, was not lost until lap 8 when a gearbox problem put him back to 18th. With McLaren putting him on a three-stop strategy, Hamilton managed to work his way back up to seventh, thanks to a late pitstop by Trulli, however, the two points were not enough. With Räikkönen and Massa trotting to a 60-second victory, Kimi was secured the title. No-body had ever anticipated such dominance from Ferrari in Sao Paulo, one which rivalled McLaren's pace around the streets of Monaco back in May.

Behind the top three, Nico Rosberg took a well-deserved fourth after a brilliant race from 10th on the grid. Both his, and the BMW's results of Kubica and Heidfeld were put in doubt following the race due to under-temperature fuel, only for them to be cleared following a long deliberation by the stewards. Picking up the final point of the season was Toyota's Jarno Trulli, behind Hamilton, in eighth.

Top 8: Räikkönen, Massa, Alonso, Rosberg, Kubica, Heidfeld, Hamilton, Trulli.