FERRARI driver Kimi Raikkonen won the Brazilian Grand Prix today to take his first Formula One world championship.

The Finn finished ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa to take the title by a single point from McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton, 22, who had led the F1 championship since May.

The problems for Hamilton, who started on the front row at Interlagos, started on the first lap when a mistake dropped him to eighth place while battling with team-mate Fernando Alonso, who finished third in Brazil.

Then a technical glitch with the engine on lap seven cost Hamilton up to 40 seconds and dropped him to 18th, facing a long fight back through the field. He eventually finished seventh, a lap behind the leader and not enough to win the title.

The best performance of the Oxfordshire area teams came from Nico Rosberg, who had a brilliant drive in the Grove-built AT&T Williams-Toyota to finish in fourth place.

Rosberg's team-mate Kazuki Nakajima finished in tenth place on his first race having replaced Alexander Wurz. His race was marred by a pit stop accident which injured two of the Williams pit crew.

The Leafield-built Super Aguri Hondas of Takuma Sato and Anthony Davidson finished 12th and 14th respectively.

Retirements included both the Enstone-built ING Renault F1 cars of Giancarlo Fisichella and Heikki Kovalainen and the Brackley-built Hondas of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello.