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The 2012 Formula 1 season has ended with a heartbreaking near-miss for Fernando Alonso after an afternoon of relentless drama finally ended with Sebastian Vettel's crossing the line in sixth place to claim his third title.
Interlagos has staged its own share of dramatic season finales but nothing like this - not even when Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 title at the final corner of the season. 2012 Interlagos may not have had a single moment of equal, but it had everything else and more as the rain fell and chaos descended.
Where to begin? How about the first lap when Vettel turned into the Williams of Bruno Senna and a World Championship of trouble as he spun to the back of the field? Where next? Try lap 25, when the Safety Car was deployed ostensibly on account of the amount of debris that had been left strewn across the circuit but very possibly to allow the world to recover its breath back after what were very arguably the 25 most action-packed laps in the sport's history.
And then? How about the sight of Force India of Nico Hulkenberg sliding into the race-leading McLaren of Lewis Hamilton to trigger an accident which briefly saw Alonso propelled into a position to win the World Championship before Vettel, his RB8 still carrying the deep scars of his first-corner crash, recovered through the field to secure the World Championship by the small but rather significant matter of three points as the race ended behind the second Safety Car of the afternoon.
As if that wasn't quite enough, controversy continued to rage about Vettel's pass around Kamui Kobayashi underneath what appeared to be yellow flags but were later identified as yellow-red warnings that the track was slippery.
"He thoroughly, thoroughly deserves this championship," endorsed team boss Christian Horner while team-mate Mark Webber hailed a "very, very special" achievement that saw Vettel crowned the youngest three-times champion in F1's history.
How different it might have been, though, with Vettel's car suffering substantial damage after being rammed first by Senna and then the Sauber of Sergio Perez.
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