Is this F1 season over?

Kimi Raikkonen may have to wait days and even weeks before the Ferrari driver can be absolutely certain that he is Formula One champion.

Even as the Finn celebrated a stunning victory against the odds in Sunday's Brazilian season-ender at Interlagos, rivals McLaren were preparing an appeal that could cast a cloud over his first title.

McLaren said on Sunday night it was ready to appeal a stewards' decision at the Brazilian Grand Prix, keeping alive Briton Lewis Hamilton's F1 title dream.

The team made the decision following the stewards' decision not to punish the BMW Sauber and Williams teams for using allegedly irregular fuel during Sunday's race, won by Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen to claim the drivers' title. McLaren's decision to appeal now leaves the results of the drivers' world championship in a state of uncertainty.

If the FIA's International Court of Appeal overturns the stewards' decision and, more crucially, disqualifies the Williams and BMW Sauber drivers, then Hamilton will be elevated from seventh to fourth - giving him enough points to beat Raikkonen for the world championship.

McLaren officials notified the FIA of their intention to appeal the race stewards ' decision not to penalise BMW Sauber and Williams within an hour of the announcement, which had appeared to seal the championship for the Finn. The stewards ' decision also meant the original race result was confirmed and that Raikkonen was confirmed as champion.

He won the race and Hamilton, the 22-year-old British rookie who went into the final race with a four-point lead after leading the championship for six months, finished seventh.

That outcome left Raikkonen one point ahead of Hamilton for the season crown, denying the British racer a world championship in his rookie campaign.

Brazilian Grand Prix stewards' decided not to take action against BMW Sauber and Williams despite a report from the FIA technical delegate that stated temperatures of fuel samples taken from both cars of each team were outside the regulations.

McLaren have a week to decide whether to proceed but even then it is unlikely that they will be able to overturn Kimi's title.

Article 168 of the FIA's international sporting code makes clear that it remains 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 placing.

Raikkonen has seen it all before, hailed as a winner of the halted 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix only to have the victory taken away days later when it emerged that the timekeepers were wrong.