SPOILER ALERT: For anyone who hasn’t seen the final race of this Year’s F1 Championship at the Brazil Grand Prix, do not read below.

With the exception of last season’s 3rd place to 1st win by Finn Kimi Raikkonen It’s been a long time since we’ve had such an exciting season, let alone an exciting final race. With Felipe Massa coming into the final race a half dozen points behind, Lewis Hamilton would have had to finish lower than 5th place for Massa to win. As most who watch Brazil know, it’s a grand prix known for it’s unpredictable weather and frequent rain. This race was no different. With a 10 minute delay in the race start due to a downpour, the race started out rather unspectacularly. A first corner incident left David Coulthard, in his final grand prix, for the worse with a broken car and a bruised ego. It’s a shame DC would leave the sport on such a trivial accident.

After that, the rest of the race was a definite challenge for Hamilton to say in the top 5 to keep his championship alive. Between two strong Ferraris, Fernando Alonso’s late season charge, Toyota’s Jarno Trulli surprisingly quick drive, 19 year old Sebastian Vettle’s absolute tear, it took the entire length of the race plus a minute to determine if Hamilton would hold on to The Championship. Going into the last lap, Hamilton sat outside the top 5 with a late race pass by Sebastian Vettle. However, after Massa had finished and won the race, Hamilton chased down 5th place Timo Glock (after SV passed him) to put him in 5th with all but 3 turns left in the race. So there it is. Lewis Hamilton wins the F1 Driver’s World Championship by one point. It was a hard fought battle that will surely come alive again next season with drivers like Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettle and Robert Kubica being thrown into the mix with an already tight top 3 (Massa, Raikkonen and Hamilton).

Congratulations to Lewis and the whole McLaren team! Though they have often been the center of drama and various ex-drivers have recently revealed questionable practices regarding internal favoritism, they performed well on track and Lewis Hamilton has greatly matured since last season.

Here’s how the race results ended up:

1. Filepe Massa (Ferrari)
2. Fernando Alonso (Renault)
3. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
4. Sebastian Vettel (STR-Ferrari)
5. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren-Mercedes)
6. Timo Glock (Toyota)
7. Heikki Kovalainen (McLaren-Mercedes)
8. Jarno Trulli (Toyota)
9. Mark Webber (Red Bull-Renault)
10. Nick Heidfeld (BMW Sauber)
11. Robert Kubica (BMW Sauber)
12. Nico Rosberg (Williams Toyota)
13. Jenson Button (Honda)
14. Sebastian Bourdais (STR-Ferrari)
15. Rubens Barrichello (Honda)
16. Adrian Sutil (Force India-Ferrari)
17. Kazuki Nakajima (Williams-Toyota)
18. Giancarlo Fisichella (Force India-Ferrari)
19. Nelsinho Piquet (Renault)
20. David Coulthard (Red Bull-Renault)

The simple answer is that everyone is waiting for the original intently and Top Gear Australia (TG:AU) was just a stop gap to keep people a little less disgruntaled about having to wait so long or Top Gear (TG:TOS to use a Star Trek term). But it brings up a great question as to why TG:AU had a steadily declining number of viewers yet TG:TOS and even Fifth Gear (FG) have kept a great number of viewers and even slightly increased their number despite being around for 12 seasons (with the new format). Much can be said about the repeat of cars reviewed as compared to the original series. Many have complained that both the track is inadequate (the original track was designed and used as a test track by Lotus Cars which gives it as much street-cred as any track in the world) and Stig isn’t driving in as consistant a manner as the Stig(s) that run around the runway at Dunsfold Park, in Surrey, England.

However, none of those things make Top Gear the wonderful show that we all know and love. It’s, in the end, the personalities. It’s a combination of chemistry, impromptu banter, a solid script and polorizing characters. We as Americans (and much of the Westernized world) can related to Clarkson, Hammond and May. Even when they mention words or names not common to our dialect, we can muddle our way through it. And the humor is along the same lines of the dry wit of Monty Python, which is universally loved. The Australian episodes have a rough dialect, a chemistry that I don’t quite buy (though Australians may love the combination of two race drivers and a comic/cartoonist). The three presenters come across as the same person three times and diversity is what I want. The TG:TOS cast represent a certain cross-section of the societies of Britian and America. They appeal to our more edgy side and our passion for cars. You can tell the Three Muskateers of Motoring have a deep and passionate love for cars (that verges on creepy at times) that doesn’t come across as clearly in the Australian show.

In the end, this post was just a round-about way of reminding you again that Top Gear will be back with season 12 in less than 4 days. You won’t have to watch the three jolly blokes down under because the real McCoy’s are coming. Just a few more days…

Anyone who’s a petrolhead or even read a car blog on the web knows all about Top Gear. What more can be said than Season 12 is coming upon us November 2nd. Check out the preview video below and after the video you can check some of what you saw in text form…

* Veritas RS III - There’s been a lot of video of this car captured at the Nurburgring
* Stig in a Bugatti Veyron - Perhaps we’ll finally get a timed lap of the Top Gear Test Track
* Lamborghini Gallardo - Doesn’t get any less beautiful
* Speedboat driving - What car will they compare this to? Probably another Pagani.
* Double decker bus racing - ’nuff said.
* Semi truck foolishness - More Mass = More Damage = More Clarkson Chaos
* Pagoni Zonda - See the speedboat
* Corvette ZR1 - Another Corvette Clarkson Will Love
* Cadillac CTS-V - In America with the Challenger
* Dodge Challenger SRT8 - See Above
* Reno shenanigans - Ditto
* Mercedes Benz C63 AMG - Still Racus. Still Hot.
* Lexus IS-F - Fifth Gear Did It…

In search of social media case studies from the automotive industry?  Well, so are we… If you’ve found any please let us know.  In the mean time if you are in San Jose or surrounding areas I highly recommend checking out this conference, “How Big Companies Use Social Media.”  Big hitters such as Home Depot, UPS, and CISCO will giving presentations.  Maybe you can learn something and create your own case study for the automotive industry…