McLaren-Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton (right) of Britain celebrates with his brother Nicholas at his team's pit after securing the drivers' world championship after the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix at the Interlagos racetrack in Sao Paulo yesterday. - AP

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP):

Lewis Hamilton of McLaren became Formula One's youngest champion yesterday, making a pass on the final turn of the last lap to finish fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix and win the title by one point over Felipe Massa.

Ferrari's Massa won the race in front of his home crowd, but it wasn't enough to erase the seven-point lead Hamilton held entering the season-ending race.

Last lap

Just one year after Hamilton lost the title by one point after starting the final race with a seven-point lead over eventual champion Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari, the 23-year-old Briton passed Toyota's Timo Glock on the last lap to win the championship.

Fernando Alonso was 24 when he won the title in 2005 for Renault.

Hamilton fell to sixth place after being overtaken by Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel with two laps to go. After Vettel passed Glock, Hamilton also moved up one spot and finished the season with 98 points.

Speechless

"I am speechless," Hamilton said. "It's been a long journey in which I had the support of many people. My team did a fantastic job during the entire year and we sacrificed ourselves a lot. I am happy for having achieved this for all of us."

Massa won the race in one hour, 34 minutes, 11.435 seconds at the 4.3-kilometre (2.6-mile) Interlagos track. Alonso was second for Renault 13.298 seconds behind and Raikkonen took third 2.937 back from Alonso. Vettel was fourth.

"I think it was the most incredible race I ever saw in my life," Massa said. "So many things happened. It was a crazy race.

"Unfortunately we missed by one point, but that's racing. We need to be proud. The race was just perfect, we did everything just fantastically."

Hamilton, the first British F1 champion since Damon Hill in 1996, was sixth until the final turn, but Glock's car was still on dry tires. That forced him to slow in the pouring rain, allowing Hamilton to make his move.

"It was just impossible on the last lap," Glock said. "I was fighting as hard as I could but it was so difficult to just keep the car on the track and I lost positions right at the end of the lap."

For a few moments, it wasn't clear whether Hamilton or Massa had won the championship with both pit teams celebrating. Massa said he didn't know the final result until he was told on the team radio on the backstretch.

The win

"They kept saying, 'wait a second'," Massa said. "When I was getting to Turn Three they said (Hamilton) passed Glock."

Hamilton had a long embrace with his father, Anthony and both were apparently crying. He then kissed girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, a singer with The Pussycat Dolls pop band.

He said he didn't know if he had won the championship when he crossed the finish line.

"I was shouting, 'Did I win? Did I win?'" Hamilton said. "Then they told me when I was on the corner and I was ecstatic. It's a dream."