F1 title deciders: Historical past of Drivers’ Championship taking place to final race forward of 2025 Abu Dhabi GP

The 2025 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will signify the thirty second time in System 1’s 75-year historical past that the battle for the Drivers’ Championship has gone all the way down to the ultimate race of the season.

Whereas a few of the most memorable races which have settled championships have taken place earlier than the ultimate spherical of the yr – probably the most well-known being Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost’s Suzuka collisions of 1989 and 1990, each of which had been on the penultimate stage of the season – there’s all the time one thing just a bit further particular a few win-or-bust showdown on the closing race.

So right here, in chronological order, we recall a few of the most well-known down-to-the-wire deciders…

Japan 1976: Lauda v Hunt

It is definitely simple to see why the James Hunt v Niki Lauda title duel of 1976 finally got here to be portrayed on the large display. However the stark variations in model between the 2 protagonists on the coronary heart of it, the elements of a compelling story had been all there throughout the 16-race marketing campaign: drama, controversy, against-the-odds fightbacks and, within the case of Lauda’s horrific German GP accident which practically price the Ferrari star his life, deep sorrow.

That all of it distilled right into a tense title decider at a rain-soaked Fuji ensured the story was unpredictable proper to the final too. Having fairly unfathomably solely sat out two races whereas he convalesced from the intense burns sustained in his fiery Nurburgring crash, Lauda, because of a dominant begin to the yr, arrived on the finale three factors away from flamboyant McLaren driver Hunt, who had received three of the earlier 4 races.

In horrendously moist race-day situations in Japan, Lauda protested in opposition to the choice to start out the race by withdrawing his automobile on the finish of the second lap, leaving race-leader Hunt seemingly on his approach to the title.

That is how issues would ultimately prove, however not earlier than one closing bout of tense drama when Hunt was compelled right into a late pitstop for a puncture after which returned to the observe and handed Alan Jones and Clay Regazzoni for third. The title was Hunt’s – by all of a degree.

Pre-race standings: 1. Lauda – 68 factors, 2. Hunt – 65 factors.
Submit-race standings: 1. Hunt – 69 factors, 2. Lauda – 68 factors.

Australia 1986: Mansell v Prost v Piquet

“And colossally that’s Mansell!” The immortal phrases of Murray Walker in shocked response to the spectacular title-denying puncture on Nigel Mansell’s Williams as probably the most dramatic second of the 1986 season and, maybe any, title showdown performed out in heart-breaking style for a nation’s racing hero. It was the form of rank misfortune that might typically intervene on the Britain’s undesirable behalf earlier than he ultimately wrapped up his sole F1 crown some six years later.

Mansell had been one in every of three drivers in rivalry for the drivers’ title going into the Adelaide decider, however his factors benefit over team-mate Nelson Piquet and McLaren’s reigning champion Alain Prost meant he might afford to complete on the underside step of the rostrum and nonetheless be champion.

Whereas a poor begin from pole dropped him to fourth, Mansell, in a topsy-turvy race wherein tyre issues had already performed their half, was within the required third place when his left-rear tyre blew in spectacular, spark-frenzy style 18 laps from residence as he handed a backmarker down the Brabham Straight.

Mansell slewed into the escape highway and into quick retirement, Williams referred to as Piquet into the pits for a precautionary check-up and Prost, with the race victory, was the against-the-odds World Champion.

Pre-race standings: 1. Mansell – 70 factors, 2. Prost – 64 factors, 3. Piquet – 63 factors.
Submit-race standings: 1. Prost – 72 factors, 2. Mansell – 70 factors, 3. Piquet – 69 factors.

Australia 1994: Schumacher v Hill

F1’s most tragic of seasons following the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna had largely been dogged by controversy thereafter, with a lot of it affecting the title race between growing rivals Michael Schumacher of Benetton and Williams’ Damon Hill.

A showdown on the streets of Adelaide had appeared a somewhat unlikely prospect when Schumacher began the season with six wins from seven however two race disqualifications, adopted by a two-race ban for the German driver, had allowed Hill, who had began the season as Senna’s understudy, the possibility to take issues to the wire.

Due to a career-best victory in torrential rain at Suzuka, Hill headed Down Below inside a degree of F1’s new younger star, though it was the Briton’s then 41-year-old stand-in team-mate Nigel Mansell who upstaged each championship protagonists to take pole for the decider.

Nonetheless, it was Schumacher, adopted by Hill, who led away firstly of the race with the Briton shadowing his rival by way of the primary half of the race. It was on lap 36 when issues bought tasty: Schumacher outbraked himself and ran broad over the kerb and hit the skin wall, earlier than returning to the observe proper in entrance of the oncoming Williams.

Hill, who hadn’t rounded the nook in time to see the chief hit the wall, instinctively dived for the within of the Benetton on the subsequent right-hander however Schumacher turned in too, making harmful contact.

The conflict briefly put the German up on two wheels earlier than he got here to relaxation within the tyre barrier, and whereas Hill briefly continued, his FW16B was critically broken. It meant that the world title, for the primary time, was Schumacher’s however the controversial method wherein he achieved it could canine him for the remainder of his profession.

Pre-race standings: 1. Schumacher – 92 factors, 2. Hill – 91 factors.
Submit-race standings: 1. Schumacher – 92 factors, 2. Hill – 91 factors.

Europe 1997: Schumacher v Villeneuve

As tense title-deciding weekends go, Jerez ’97 nearly had all of it. Michael Schumacher, F1’s undisputed famous person after which double World Champion, and Jacques Villeneuve, the peroxide-blonde Canadian firebrand, had been the 2 protagonists having utterly dominated the season. It was additionally Ferrari in opposition to Williams, purple in opposition to blue, within the battle of two of the game’s conventional titans.

Pleasure for the duel was heightened in qualifying when Villeneuve and Schumacher, to a lot amazement and greater than a bit of scepticism, set an identical qualifying instances of 1:21.072. Such ideas turned to ones of outright conspiracy when the second Williams of Heinz-Harald Frenzten made it three drivers on the identical time.

Villeneuve began on pole from Schumacher courtesy of the actual fact he had set his qualifying time first however was outdragged by the Ferrari into the primary nook. As the primary two stints progressed Schumacher established a small, however seemingly snug, lead and the drivers’ title appeared to be heading to Maranello after an 18-year wait in simply the German’s second season on the workforce.

Nonetheless, the race, and the title duel, turned after the ultimate pitstops because the Ferrari, seemingly struggling together with his new set of tyres, was caught by the Williams with Villeneuve abruptly making a transfer from a good distance again. Schumacher was seemingly caught unawares and, whereas his preliminary transfer of the steering wheel was away from the oncoming Williams, the German turned again in, making inevitable contact together with his rival’s sidepod.

Schumacher ended up beached within the gravel and, whereas the Williams was broken, Villeneuve was capable of proceed. “That didn’t work, you hit the wrong part of him my friend,” famously declared Martin Brundle from the commentary field.

As Schumacher watched on from the aspect of the observe, Villenueve drove on to complete in a title-winning third place – the Canadian overtaken with the minimal of resistance by McLaren duo Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard late on. Schumacher, on the centre of a maelstrom over his on-track conduct for the second time in 4 seasons, protested his innocence within the collision however in a post-season FIA listening to was stripped of the runner-up place within the standings.

Pre-race standings: 1. Schumacher – 78 factors, 2. Villeneuve – 77 factors.
Submit-race standings: 1. Villeneuve – 81 factors, Schumacher DSQ (78 factors)

Brazil 2007: Hamilton v Alonso v Raikkonen

Lewis Hamilton stood on the point of two landmark F1 achievements when he took to the Interlagos grid on the finish of his astonishing maiden season: the primary rookie World Champion and, at 22 years outdated, the youngest. Whereas a Shanghai gravel entice had scuppered his makes an attempt to shut issues out on the first try the race earlier than, the McLaren starlet appeared within the field seat regardless of team-mate Fernando Alonso and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen nonetheless having their very own title possibilities heading to Interlagos.

That it was rank outsider Raikkonen – by a solitary level – who finally triumphed on the expense of the 2 McLaren drivers got here to signify the ultimate nail within the workforce’s 2007 coffin.

The explosive occasions of Spygate – which noticed McLaren hit with a $100m high quality and disqualification from the Constructors’ Championship – had occurred alongside the dramatic breakdown in relations between Alonso and the workforce’s senior administration. For all of that Hamilton, whose startling breakthrough had brought on a lot of Alonso’s angst, ought to nonetheless have had his fingers on the title.

After a rash response to dropping behind his team-mate on the first lap – Hamilton ran off the highway making an attempt to repass Alonso on the again straight – the teen had settled down and seemed to be again on the right track just for a disastrous gearbox glitch to intervene. It lasted for seconds somewhat than minutes, however the misplaced floor price Hamilton expensive and his eventual seventh-place end wasn’t adequate to disclaim race winner Raikkonen the crown.

Pre-race standings: 1. Hamilton – 107 factors, 2. Alonso – 103 factors, 3. Raikkonen – 100 factors.
Submit-race standings: 1. Raikkonen – 110 factors, 2. Hamilton – 109 factors, 3. Alonso – 109 factors.

Brazil 2008: Hamilton v Massa

“Is that Glock?!” In case you’re searching for sporting melodrama, and probably the most memorable F1 soundbite this century, then the breathless climax to the 2008 Brazilian GP is arguably pretty much as good as you are prone to discover.

Hamilton’s go on Totoya’s Timo Glock within the rain at Interlagos meant the then McLaren driver received his first championship on the final nook of the final lap of the final race of the season. It concurrently additionally crushed the wild celebrations of Ferrari and the boisterous Brazilian crowd, who for 30 seconds had thought their man Felipe Massa had grow to be World Champion.

In reflection, the last-gasp drama that has since seen the 2008 decider extensively described as one of the best showdown of all time had appeared in barely brief provide for many of the race. Massa, the outsider, was main comfortably within the wet-dry-wet race from pole however Hamilton was nonetheless doing a bit of greater than sufficient for the title, working in fourth when a fifth was all he required.

Nonetheless, the return of rain with 5 laps to go spectacularly introduced proceedings to life with Hamilton pitting for intermediates after which working broad simply two laps from residence, dropping him behind Vettel to sixth and out of a title-winning place.

For 2 tortuous laps he had appeared to have blown the title for the second straight yr, earlier than Toyota’s Timo Glock, who had gambled on staying out on slicks, misplaced grip proper on the final. So the title was Hamilton’s in simply his second season, however solely simply.

Pre-race standings: 1. Hamilton – 94 factors, 2. Massa – 87 factors.
Submit-race standings: 1. Hamilton – 98 factors, 3. Massa – 97 factors.

Abu Dhabi 2010: Alonso v Webber v Vettel v Hamilton

F1’s hitherto solely four-way championship decider. After a season stuffed with twists of turns, the highest 4 within the championship had been separated by simply 24 factors getting into the ultimate weekend of the season. Frankly, though mathematically each within the hunt, the prospects of Vettel and notably Hamilton had been slim given they had been respectively 15 and 24 factors behind title chief Alonso within the standings.

The battle for the crown was due to this fact anticipated to be a duel between Alonso and the opposite Purple Bull of Mark Webber, who trailed the Spaniard by a seemingly extra surmountable eight factors.

Nonetheless, in opposition to all these predictions, the season and the title battle turned decisively on the first spherical of pitstops when Ferrari pitted Alonso to cowl a struggling Webber and solely succeeded in dropping their man into site visitors.

Though Webber might solely end eighth, Alonso was to come back a cropper as effectively. For 37 laps the Ferrari driver tried and did not discover a well beyond Vitaly Petrov’s Renault, condemning the Spaniard to seventh place within the race and second place within the Drivers’ Championship after Vettel pinched the title by 4 factors with a snug race victory. Little did F1 know on the time, however a brand new period had dawned.

Pre-race standings: 1. Alonso – 246 factors, 2. Webber – 238 factors, 3. Vettel – 231 factors, 4. Hamilton – 222 factors.
Submit-race standings: 1. Vettel – 256 factors, 2. Alonso – 252 factors, 3. Webber – 242 factors, 4. Hamilton – 240.

Brazil 2012: Vettel v Alonso

Whereas the Interlagos finale of two years in the past lacked the remoted golden ‘second’ that always ensures a decider goes down within the annals – suppose Hamilton’s final-corner go of Glock in 2008 or Nigel Mansell’s spectacular tyre blow of ’86 – what it definitely did have was a story of unpredictability working proper by way of its 71-lap distance.

Heading into the weekend and reigning double champion Sebastian Vettel held a 13-point lead over Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and solely wanted to complete fourth to safe a 3rd straight crown. Having completed on the rostrum within the earlier six races, profitable 4 of them to overturn his rival’s giant mid-season title benefit, Vettel appeared destined to be topped champion once more.

What adopted was arguably the most important scare of what proved to be a four-year period of domination for the Purple Bull driver.

The title had seemed to be Alonso’s after Vettel, making an attempt to get better from a poor begin, spun on lap one after tagging Bruno Senna’s Williams below braking on the finish of the again straight. Not solely did the hefty collision drop the German driver to the again, however it brought on vital harm to the left-rear aspect of his Purple Bull.

A DNF initially appeared inevitable however Vettel, regardless of being down on aerodynamic efficiency, fought on within the drizzly rain and ultimately completed sixth to Alonso’s second, giving him the title by a scant three factors.

Pre-race standings: 1. Vettel – 273 factors, 2, Alonso – 260 factors.
Submit-race standings: 1. Vettel – 281 factors, 2. Alonso – 278 factors.

Abu Dhabi 2021: Verstappen vs Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen loved a respectful relationship up till 2021 – with the pair hardly ever in direct wheel-to-wheel fight – however the 2021 marketing campaign noticed them embark on a ferocious conflict of F1 eras.

Hamilton, aiming for a file eighth championship, and younger famous person Verstappen’s rivalry was simmering by way of a closely-matched first portion of the season. It was to ignite with massive crashes at Silverstone and Monza, with tempers additionally flaring between Mercedes and Purple Bull and their respective workforce bosses, Toto Wolff and Christian Horner, each of whom felt their lead driver was being unfairly handled by F1’s governing FIA and race director, Michael Masi.

Verstappen secured pole place forward of Hamilton for season finale in Abu Dhabi, whereas he additionally held a tyre benefit over the British driver for Sunday’s eagerly anticipated begin on the comfortable tyre in comparison with the mediums.

It was Hamilton, although, who led into the primary nook, whereas he additionally then survived the primary flashpoint of the day after Verstappen flung his Purple Bull up the within of Flip Six, just for Hamilton to take to the run-off space and retain his lead. Purple Bull protested to Masi, however race stewards deemed no investigation was needed.

Purple Bull wanted a miracle then with eight laps to go, Williams driver Nicholas Latifi crashed into the boundaries on Lap 50 of 58 whereas chasing Mick Schumacher. A Security Automobile was referred to as however the timing of the incident left Mercedes with a near-impossible technique choice – pit Hamilton onto recent tyres and danger the race ending behind the Security Automobile… or not pit Hamilton, maintain the lead, however danger the race restarting and Verstappen searching Hamilton down on new comfortable rubber.

Not believing the race might get restarted in time because of the rules on restarts and lapped automobiles, Mercedes opted for the latter. Purple Bull, unsurprisingly, did the alternative, pitting Verstappen, who rejoined the observe with 5 lapped automobiles between him and Hamilton.

On Lap 56, two from the top, the world TV feed displayed the message from Race Management: “Lapped cars will not be allowed to overtake.” It due to this fact appeared this race was achieved, no matter whether or not it was restarted.

In a dialog performed out a lap later, Horner requested Masi: “Why aren’t we getting these lapped cars out the way?”

Masi replied: “Christian, just give me a second. My main big one is to get this [Latifi] incident clear.”

Then, in a dramatic U-turn, on the penultimate lap and lapped runners had been now instructed to overhaul, though solely the 5 between the 2 title contenders and never these additional again within the pack behind Verstappen, as the foundations state.

It was additionally quickly signified that the race would restart for a dramatic winner-takes-all 58th and closing lap, which additionally represented a distinct interpretation of the rules on Security Automobile restarts.

“No Michael no, this is so not right!” mentioned an outraged Wolff from the Mercedes storage.

Hamilton – compelled right into a final-lap showdown in opposition to Verstappen however on a lot older laborious tyres in comparison with Verstappen’s new softs – tried to defend in opposition to the Purple Bull however was overtaken down the within of Flip 5.

Verstappen weaved down the again straight, going barely deep into Flip Six, so Hamilton had a greater run all the way down to Flip Eight – the ultimate actual overtaking alternative however might solely get alongside and was unable to re-pass his rival.

“This has been manipulated man,” mentioned a distraught seven-time world champion within the closing corners.

Verstappen crossed the road as a champion. Cue pure elation, and bedlam, within the Purple Bull cockpit and storage. Cue disbelief at Mercedes.

Pre-race standings: 1. Verstappen – 369.5 factors, 2, Hamilton – 369.5 factors.

Submit-race standings: 1. Verstappen – 395.5, 2. Hamilton – 387.5 factors.

The 2025 System 1 season concludes with the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix dwell on Sky Sports activities F1 from Friday. Stream Sky Sports activities with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime