Race and classic pictures

The moment when Massa won - and lost

Looking at the pictures above and below, you wouldn't think that this was the face of a man who had just won his home race.

Felipe Massa clinched victory in the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix on November 2. He'd started from pole position and drove an exemplary race in tricky conditions with rain falling at the start and again at the end.

Renault's Fernando Alonso finished in second place. They were joined on the podium by Massa's Ferrari team mate Kimi Raikkonen.

But this was the last race of the season, and the world championship was also on the line. Coming into the race Lewis Hamilton had a seven point lead, which meant he had to finish fifth or better.

When the rain picked up in the closing laps, the leaders pitted for intermediate tyres. Hamilton then ran wide on the penultimate lap which allowed Sebastian Vettel to pass him for the crucial fifth place. Hamilton tried to win back the position, but Vettel successfully denied him.

When Massa crossed the line, Ferrari celebrated their driver's world championship. But 39 seconds later, the awful truth finally dawned. While Hamilton had indeed crossed the line behind Vettel, the pair of them had both succeeded in passing the Toyota of Timo Glock in the final corners.

It meant that Vettel finished fourth and Hamilton had the fifth place he needed to clinch his first world championship. And that's why Felipe Massa looks as gutted as he does in this picture of the post-race press conference: world champion-apparent for mere seconds.

"I know how to lose and I know how to win," Massa said. "And as I said before it is another day of my life from which I am going to learn a lot."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.