Hamilton and Raikkonen out of the title race

King Tut · 09-13-2009, 11:49 PM

Lewis Hamilton's defence of his 2008 world championship ended mathematically on Sunday.

With his crash while chasing second place on the last lap of the Italian Grand Prix, the McLaren driver also dropped out of striking distance of Jenson Button's title lead with four races to go.

With a perfect run of wins, meanwhile, 2007 championship winner Kimi Raikkonen could mathematically match Button's tally if the Briton scores no more points this season, but the Finn would still not be world champion.

In a points tie, the driver with the most wins is declared the champion, and Raikkonen would lose out against Button by a factor of five wins to six.

The results of the Monza race means just three drivers are still in the fight with Button: his team-mate Rubens Barrichello and the two Red Bull drivers

But Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber's poor outings on Sunday leaves them a distant 26 and 28.5 points behind respectively, moving most to surmise that the champion will definitely be a Brawn driver.

"The championship isn’t over – our target is to do our best, we’re here to win races and the championship, so we have to focus on that, all the rest is out of our hands," said a defiant Vettel.

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