It's been a truly gripping weekend of sport - and the F1 race at the Brazilian Grand Prix was quite astounding. Aside from the Boston Red Sox heroics, the two other contests of the weekend that commanded my attention involved the wilting of the rose of England against the indomitable South African Springboks and the fact that David Nalbandian broke the Roger Federer voodoo in the Madrid Masters final.

Turning to the Formula 1 final race of the season, the three contenders were Fernando Alonso (McLaren), Lewis Hamilton (McLaren) and Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) jockeying for the title of world champion. The way the cards were laid out after the previous Grand Prix in Shanghai, you begin to wonder whether there wasn't an element of rigging going on to heighten the suspense in the final race of the season.

Hamilton's mistakes in China meant he lay four points ahead of Alonso and seven ahead of Raikkonen. What transpired would have been hard to script. The English rookie driver's messed-up start and mistake at the first turn meant that he was pushed sufficiently way back that he finished seventh. Alonso finished third, stymied behind both Ferraris, with Raikkonen winning his sixth GP of the season and his first-ever F1 championship, ending up with 110 points, ahead of Alonso AND Hamilton, both on 109. The final score: 110-109. It was more like a basketball game, won at the buzzer. But it feels a little too exciting, if you know what I mean.

'The way the cards were laid out after the last Grand Prix in Shanghai, you begin to wonder whether there wasn't an element of rigging going on to heighten the suspense in the final race of the season'

As for the Rugby World Cup Final, I was a little dejected but not overly surprised to see England finish second behind the Springboks. My son Oscar and I went to the Stade de France to try to find some last-minute tickets at a reasonable price (after the kick-off). This was, of course, wishful thinking which turned into a fun and rowdy night in the neighbouring Saint Denis village watching the game (at least the first half) on a big screen with a new-found Aussie mate.

Mark Cueto's near try and Jonny Wilkinson's two missed drop kicks kind of say it all. England played a great tournament, beating two favourites to get to the final. They had 55 per cent possession and were in the Boks' 22 for nearly seven minutes (compared to just over three minutes for the Boks in the English 22). But the Boks' defence was strong. A tryless final for the second time in a row is not a good sign for rugby, though.

The final sporting achievement of the weekend was Nalbandian's victory over Federer. Fact 1, unseeded Nalbandian had to beat both the number three (Novak Djokovic) and number two (Rafa Nadal) seeds before meeting No.1 Federer. Fact 2, Nalbandian had lost 8 times against Federer in their last 9 encounters, although the record is 7-8 lifetime. Fact 3, it was Federer's first loss since the finals of the Montreal Open in August and just his seventh defeat this year. Enough to say, kudos to another Argentinian (whose Pumas destroyed France on Friday night 34-10 at Parc des Princes in the RWC third-place play-off).