Whatever way it is dressed up, Lewis Hamilton should have won the Formula 1 world title in 2007.
However, in the penultimate outing of the campaign in China, the young Brit failed to finish the race when he sent his McLaren into the gravel, thus recording the first retirement of his career.
Nonetheless, he was still four points clear at the top of the standings for the last meeting in Brazil. Gearbox problems got the better of him this time, though, and he could only finish seventh, meaning that race winner Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari claimed the championship by just one point. Hamilton had only needed three points from the last two races and yet he'd only amassed two.
Somehow, the 23-year-old managed to make the title battle even tighter a year later and on this very day.
Hamilton, who had qualified in fourth, went into the race at the Interlagos circuit in the knowledge that he if he finished fifth or better, there was nothing that his closest challenge Felipe Massa could do to stop him from clinching the trophy.
Going into the final lap, Massa had a clear lead out front, but thankfully for Hamilton, he was in fifth position. That's when the error arrived, though, and with a few corners left, he ran wide as Sebastian Vettel relegated him down to sixth place.
As it stood, Hamilton and Massa were joint top of the table, but the Brazilian would have won the title by virtue of the fact that he had claimed more victories over the course of the season.
There were jubilant scenes in the Ferrari garage as Massa took the chequered flag, but they proved to be premature celebrations. Timo Glock, who had spent a lot of the race in fourth, had remained on dry tyres, even when the rain fell. As a result, he lost a hefty 19 seconds in the closing stages, which allowed not only Vettel, but also Hamilton to pass him on the final corner.
Having lost the previous year's title by one point, Hamilton had won it 12 months later by the same margin. What's more, he had become the youngster driver to ever lift the trophy, while he was also the first Brit since Damon Hill in 1996 to come out on top.
"It's pretty impossible to put into words. I thought do I have it? Do I have it? And when they told me I was ecstatic," said the champion, while a defeated Massa added: "It was an emotional day for me. You get here and you've almost done everything perfect but we saw Lewis passing Glock again and that mixed emotion.
"Unfortunately we missed [out] by one point but that's racing. We need to be proud of our race and our championship. It's one more day of our life when I will learn a lot but for sure I'm very emotional."
Liam Apicella
