Finland's Kimi Raikkonen captured the Formula One title after winning the Brazilian Grand Prix Sunday in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Raikkonen, who grabbed the lead with 17 laps remaining, finished more than a second ahead of teammate Felipe Massa, putting Ferrari back on top of the F1 mountain.

Finnish driver Kimi Raikkonen celebrates his F1 title after winning the Brazilian Grand Prix Sunday in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
(Silvia Izquierdo/Associated Press)

"This is a great feeling," Raikkonen said. "We had some hard times, some reliability problems and lost some points. A lot of people didn't believe in us, but we showed that they were wrong and we were able to come back. It was a great season."

Known as "The Iceman" for his cool demeanour, Raikkonen was reserved in his celebrations on the podium, waving his cap to the fans before raising his arms in the air.

Sitting in third place of the drivers' standings heading into Sunday's race, Raikkonen rallied to capture the closest title in 21 years.

Rookie Lewis Hamilton, the points leader prior to this event, went off the track on the first lap and endured gear problems with his McLaren before finishing seventh. Last year's champion, McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso, placed third.

"I went into the race and said to myself, 'Whatever happens today, it's been a phenomenal year,'" Hamilton said.

"Who would've thought I would be leading the world championship during the last races? It's a great feeling being in that position. The team did a phenomenal job all year."

Alonso needed to place second and Hamilton fifth to keep Raikkonen from winning the drivers' championship.

There were some doubts after the race whether Raikkonen would keep the title, however, as Formula One's governing body — FIA — opened up an investigation into possible fuel irregularities.

FIA called a meeting involving representatives from BMW-Sauber and Williams, whose drivers finished fourth, fifth, sixth and 10th. If at least two of them were punished, Hamilton could have moved up to fifth and taken the title.

Nearly six hours after the race, FIA said there wasn't enough evidence to penalize the drivers or the teams.

Raikkonen erased a seven-point gap coming into the race to finish with 110 points, one more than Hamilton and Alonso.

Hamilton, looking to become the youngest F1 champion ever, began in the front row along with pole sitter Massa, but was overtaken by both Raikkonen and Alonso at the first turn.

A driving mistake while attempting to pass Alonso three turns later dropped the overzealous Hamilton to eighth before the opening lap was completed.

The Englishman moved back to sixth place following six laps, but his car slowed noticeably with an apparent gear problem two laps later.

Hamilton's car suddenly picked up steam, yet he still found himself in 18th place. His McLaren seemed to return without problems the rest of the way and moved past the slower cars. By lap 18 of 71, Hamilton was running in 11th, but he couldn't manage to move up past seventh.

"When I saw Hamilton going off, I knew that maybe we had some chances," Raikkonen said. "I wasn't 100 per cent sure, I was really just waiting. It took a long time to hear that we had finally won it."

The rookie needed a top-two finish to secure the F1 title without relying on other drivers.

"Lewis has enjoyed phenomenal reliability from his car this year," McLaren team chief Ron Dennis told British television. "It was just a default in the gearbox which selected neutral for a period of time, but then sorted itself out."

Massa and Raikkonen ran 1-2 from the start with the Finn taking the lead after his final pit stop. Raikkonen emerged ahead of Massa as the Brazilian apparently slowed his pace.

With files from the Associated Press