DOHA: Mercedes have won the last seven drivers’ and constructors’ championships but this year could break the sport’s longest period of domination by a single team and crown Max Verstappen for the first time.
Since 2012 the battle has gone the distance only twice and on both occasions it was between Hamilton and Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg.
With both Verstappen and Hamilton tied after the Saudi Arabia GP last weekend, the battle between the 24-year-old challenger and 36-year-old defending champion, a rivalry reminiscent of that in the late 1980s and early 1990s between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, has gone to the wire in Abu Dhabi.
The 1964 battle between Ferrari’s John Surtees and BRM’s Graham Hill ended with the former as champion by a single point despite his fellow-Briton scoring more overall. In those days, only the six best results counted.
In 1988, Senna won the first of his three titles despite also scoring fewer points than McLaren team mate Prost, with only the best 11 results counting.
In 2010 there were four contenders all the way to the final race with Vettel coming through despite not having led the championship until then.
Hamilton was one of them and already a veteran of such cliffhangers, losing by a single point to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen in the Briton’s 2007 debut season with McLaren.
He took his first title in 2008 with a pass on the last corner of the last lap of the final race.
In total 14 championships since 1950 have been won at the penultimate round, most recently Jenson Button with Brawn GP in 2009, and 29 at the last race.
Five titles in a row were decided in the penultimate race from 1987-91.
