KEY POINTS:
Kimi Raikkonen may have to wait weeks before being certain he is Formula One champion.
Even as the Ferrari-driving Finn celebrated a stunning victory against the odds in the Brazilian season-ender at Interlagos, rivals McLaren were preparing an appeal that could cast a cloud over his first title.
There may be further agonies in store for a sport whose image has taken a battering with a spying scandal and other controversies.
McLaren's Fernando Alonso, the double world champion, said he would be embarrassed if his teammate Lewis Hamilton was awarded victory as a result of his team's appeal. He said the title should be earned on the track.
Hamilton himself said he wanted to win the F1 title in his car - not weeks later after appeal. "It would be wrong," said the rookie Briton, 22, still suffering the effects of a heavy night out after letting the title slip from his grasp by a single point.
"For me, I want to win it on the track," he said. "You want to do it in style, you want to win the race, you want to win battling it out for the lead or something in the race. Being promoted after some people have been thrown out is not the way I'd want it."
McLaren have told the International Automobile Federation they intend to appeal against the stewards' decision not to penalise Williams and BMW Sauber for fuel temperature irregularities at Interlagos.
McLaren have a week to decide whether to proceed - but it is unlikely that they will be able to overturn Raikkonen's title.
Article 168 of the FIA's international sporting code makes clear that it is up to the stewards to decide whether to move a driver up in the race classification. Drivers have been stripped of points in the past - but allowed to keep their placings.
Raikkonen has seen it all before. Hailed as a winner of the halted 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix, he had the victory taken away days later when it emerged the timekeepers were wrong.
Even if it all turns out to be one last storm in a teacup, the lingering uncertainty was typical of a tormented season, poisoned by the spy saga that left McLaren stripped of all their constructors' points and fined a record US$100 million ($134.53 million) for having sensitive Ferrari information in their possession.
Having secured a thrilling three-way battle down to the wire, for the first time since 1986, the last thing the sport needed was further confusion. Raikkonen's win appeared at least to have ended talk of the title being tainted. After twice finishing a season as runner-up, the Finn won more races - six - than anyone else.
McLaren boss Ron Dennis was quite correct when he said after the race, before the fuel issue came to a head, that it had been a great season on the track. His team had led since the second race in Malaysia, won by Alonso. And in Hamilton- the most astonishing newcomer the sport has seen - they struck pure gold.
Dennis said the statisticians had worked out how Hamilton was likely to progress during the course of the season but had ripped up the predictions after three races, such was his form. "He exceeded all the expectations," he added.
Hamilton failed but his time will surely come. He won four races and finished his first nine on the podium.
Britain's last world champion, Damon Hill, said: "Lewis has shown more potential as a newcomer this year than any rookie driver has ever done.
"He has shown that he is a serious contender.
"This has been the best F1 season in a very long time; it is great for the sport. I hope that Lewis wins the championship next year," he added.
"The worrying thing for the other drivers is that he's only going to get better."
