Third place in Brazil was enough to win the title
McLaren continued their dominant season-closing performances with a stylish one-two in the Brazilian Grand Prix but their resurgence has been too late for Kimi Raikkonen.
McLaren have won the last five races but a legacy of early season mistakes proved too much for driver Raikkonen to overcome as his rival Fernando Alonso secured the world title with a third-place finish here Sunday.
Raikkonen, who is equal with Alonso on six wins apiece this year, now faces the unusual distinction of winning more races than the world champion this year if he can turn dominance into victory in Japan or China. And McLaren team principal Ron Dennis admitted: "To have two races to go and to have won nine races you can`t be too hard on ourselves and we still have developments coming on to our cars in the remaining races.
"What we have in the pipeline will go on to the cars and I would be very surprised if anybody has anything going on their cars to touch our dominance before the end of the year.
"Renault had a situation in the early part of the season where Alonso got a lead and didn`t make mistakes. He was understandably comfortable to drive strategically to win the world championship.
"We were the people that were behind so we were the people who had to push and in pushing there were times when the team failed, every part of the team, the drivers and ourselves."
Renault can ease no longer, however, after bringing in their best efforts at car improvements and still seeing McLaren overhaul their lead in the constructors` championship by two points with two races left to run. McLaren`s dominance coupled with improved reliability has enabled the team to climb back from a difficult start and they are so confident of success they have promised to allow both drivers to fight for race wins in the final two races.
Dennis said: "We will go to the remaining races trying to come first and second and we will allow the drivers to race. The right way to run a racing team is to give both drivers the equal opportunity to race.
"If we are stood at the end of next season having won more races than anyone else but not the drivers championship because race wins have been shared between our two drivers we will pay that price."
That will be good news for Renault, who are likely to need some mistakes from McLaren to have a chance of beating them to secure the championship double, and they will be pushing hard to be there if either McLaren driver slips up. But even with McLaren in the ascendancy the fact that Alonso has won the drivers` championship, albeit with a third place finish here Sunday, would be enough for Renault chairman Patrick Faure.
"The drivers is always the most important because it is the one that people remember, it is the one that is always in the media and the link between Alonso and Renault is very strong today in every media," said Faure. "But if we can add the constructors` to the drivers` it really means that you have dominated the season, that you are really the best, and that is why we want to win that one too, and we have a good chance."
McLaren and Renault proved beyond doubt that they are still the teams to beat this season as BAR-Honda`s claims of a step up the grid thanks to significant are improvements failed to turn into results on race day. Jenson Button could only manage a seventh place finish and it was outgoing world champions Ferrari who looked to be the best of the rest as Michael Schumacher secured a fourth place finish.
Those two teams are likely to enjoy a close battle in the remaining races, but despite the improvements Schumacher was still left to reflect in Brazil on a season of disappointment.
So, too, were Williams as their drivers took each other out in a collision at the first corner that epitomised the disappointment of what had been a very trying race weekend.
The former World Champions have gone off the boil this season and it was only this time last year that they left Brazil celebrating victory for Juan Pablo Montoya in his last race before he joined McLaren. Now Montoya, with his second successive win in Sao Paulo, has helped his current team to move towards a victory of their own and Alonso will have little time to absorb his new found status as the season heads to a close.


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