On Nov. 2, 2008, Massa was on pole position. Hamilton had qualified fourth, ahead of McLaren teammate Hiekki Kovalainen. McLaren was confident it had the pace to stay inside the top five -- but the grey skies above the circuit promised an unpredictable contest was in store.

Felipe Massa: To be honest, I never felt big pressure before the race. I was really calm but also feeling the extra power. I was always really feeling that maybe the weekend was mine. I would say I had an amazing feeling on the grid from all the people ... I had a great atmosphere from everybody, from all the Brazilians, from all the people that were pushing me in a nice way.

Luis Fernando Ramos, circuit announcer: On the drivers' parade, I had spoken to Felipe for most of the lap -- it was broadcast around the circuit. Felipe thanked the fans, told them how amazing they were. They were just screaming his name. As we got to the final corner -- which, thinking about it now is ironic, given what happened there later -- I just grabbed the microphone and said: 'Who thinks Felipe is going to be world champion today!' There was a huge roar like we were at a football stadium. As we got to the end of the parade, I remember saying 'Felipe, I have goosebumps, what do you have?', and he just said 'Much more than that!'

Rob Smedley, Ferrari race engineer: Felipe has always been a guy who needed an arm around him and have some love and respect, and you couldn't have hoped for more love and respect from the whole of your nation at that point.

Luis Vasconcelos, journalist: For once, the Brazilian public got behind him. Because since [Ayrton] Senna they had never really got behind any driver. It was always quite split. It was like [Rubens] Barrichello was not as good as Senna, so he was crap. Felipe was not as good as Senna, so he was crap. But Felipe had won six races, was fighting for the title. So for the first time ever the Brazilian fans were pushing and supporting Felipe and booing Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton: The noise, the atmosphere, was just crazy. I had perhaps two percent of the fans wanting me to win while the rest were for Felipe. It was just so intense. But I didn't resent it -- it was normal. At Silverstone I had all the support and Felipe didn't.

As the start approached, the rain started to fall, delaying lights out. Hamilton had claimed superb victories in similar conditions at Monaco and Great Britain that year, while Massa had struggled to master the rain.

Luis Fernando Ramos, stadium announcer: It was absolutely nerve-wracking. It started raining and I thought 's---, it's wet, it's over', because Felipe's reputation in those conditions wasn't great.

Felipe Massa: Then it was a quite strange feeling, we had to wait in the car. Something was telling me maybe this can be for some good or maybe some changes for the race. I know that in the dry, Lewis had a pretty big chance to score a good amount of points so maybe this can change the race.

Lap 1-63: On a knife-edge

Felipe Massa leads into Turn 1. Lewis Hamilton (grey and red car, yellow helmet) follows close behind from fourth position. VANDERLEI ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images

Massa led away cleanly and Hamilton avoided any drama at the start. An early Safety Car was deployed for another crash and the rain soon eased off. Everyone switched to the dry tyre -- Hamilton was one of the last to do so, briefly relegating him to sixth position behind Giancarlo Fisichella.

Phil Prew, McLaren race engineer: We didn't want to be the first to go over to the dry tyres, we didn't need that risk. The person who did migrated up the grid and then it's like s---, we should be fourth here but we're fifth -- but it's still fifth, so it's OK. With Lewis' ability in the wet, which he's had from the very beginning, we had been able to make some very aggressive choices in those races that year. He'd had those wins in Monaco, Silverstone, some really excellent races in the wet so it should have been an excellent opportunity for us.

Lewis Hamilton: We knew what we had to do and the points we had to score. I guess that impacted what we did because we didn't need to put it all on the line to win.

For most of the race, the championship battle was finely poised: Massa led comfortably out in front, while Hamilton switched between fourth and fifth position -- both enough for his first championship.

All the while, dark clouds lingered around the Interlagos circuit. There would be another rain storm before the chequered flag fell.

Rob Smedley, Ferrari race engineer: Felipe had the car and was so good that day. He was just cantering along. You can hear it in his voice, you can look at the telemetry, you can see how hard he's pushing -- you know we've got bags of pace in hand at this point. The whole pack is behind and they're all scrabbling, he's just eking it out bit by bit as the race goes on.

Stefano Domenicali, Ferrari team principal: Felipe was perfect out in front. He showed why he deserved to be champion -- which he would have been without our errors earlier in the year.

Felipe Massa: When I changed to the dry tyres the race was pretty easy on my side because my pace was very, very strong so I managed to open the gap. I managed to really have quite an easy race but then suddenly it starts to rain again at the end of the race so everything changed.

Lewis Hamilton: Before it started to rain I was quite comfortable, and I was just focused on having a clean race. Everything was going fine until it started raining again.

Lap 63: The game-changer

Lewis Hamilton was running comfortably until the late rain storm in Interlagos. Paul Gilham/Getty Images

Light rain started to fall on Lap 63 of 71. Hamilton, running fourth, pitted two laps later for the 'intermediate' wet-weather tyre, as did the man directly behind him -- Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel. Massa made the same stop the following lap. While most took that same option, two cars had crucially opted to go with a different strategy to the rest.

Toyota had left Timo Glock and Jarno Trulli out on the dry tyre, banking on the rain staying light enough for them to go to the finish without the time lost in a pit-stop. The decision elevated Glock from seventh to fourth -- meaning Hamilton was now in fifth, with Vettel's charging Toro Rosso right behind him. The battle for fifth had now become one which could decide the entire championship.

Timo Glock, Toyota driver: Every time I came through Turn 3, Turn 4, Turn 5, into the middle of the circuit, the cloud above was getting bigger. I told them for sure it was going to end up in a chaotic last one, two, three laps, and that we should prepare ourselves to change tyres. They said we'll stay out because they thought it would be dry enough until the end of the race. I told them: 'listen, it's going to piss it down massively in the last couple of corners on the circuit, it's going to get worse and worse'. They said there were guys already coming in to change tyres but that the strategy for us was much better to stay on dry tyres. So that's what we did.

Luis Fernando Ramos, stadium announcer: After the Toyotas stayed out I had said to my co-commentator, 'it's all in Vettel's hands, he has to overtake Lewis for Felipe to have a chance'. Then, it happened!

Luis Vasconcelos, journalist: In Formula One there has always been this unwritten rule that you don't really fight championship contenders on the last race if you're not one of them. But nobody told that to Vettel.

Hamilton, stalked closer and closer by Vettel, suddenly gets un-lapped by the BMW of Robert Kubica on the inside of the circuit's final corner, Juncao. The spooked McLaren driver then made a crucial mistake -- running wide, allowing Vettel past him.

Suddenly Hamilton was in sixth position with just three laps to go.