Top 10 last-race title deciders in F1 history
03 December 2025As the F1 season finale looms, tensions rise and the world watches with bated breath to see who will be crowned the Drivers’ Champion.
From overtakes on the final corner of the final lap to controversial collisions, F1’s title-deciding finales are woven into the sport’s rich tapestry.
Here are 10 of the most thrilling Drivers' Championship battles settled at the very last round.
1964: Surtees vs. Clark vs. Hill (Mexico City)
The 1964 finale in Mexico was an all-British grudge match between John Surtees (Ferrari), Graham Hill (BRM), and Jim Clark (Lotus).
For most of the race, Clark looked set to take the crown, dominating proceedings as he so often did. But heartbreak struck with just one lap to go when his engine seized as he crossed the line, ending his title bid in its final moments.
That should have handed the title to Hill, but he had been delayed earlier after a collision with Surtees’ teammate, Lorenzo Bandini.
Having been frantically signalled by his pit crew to slow entering the final lap, Bandini let Surtees through into second place. It gave Surtees just enough points to win the title by one point, making him the only man in history to win World Championships on both two and four wheels.
1976: Hunt vs. Lauda (Fuji)
Immortalised in the movie Rush, the 1976 showdown was the culmination of Niki Lauda’s recovery from his horrific fireball crash at the Nürburgring and a charging campaign from James Hunt and McLaren.
After just two tours of the Fuji circuit, Lauda deemed the monsoon conditions too dangerous and retired his Ferrari.
That left James Hunt needing to finish fourth to snatch the title. As the track dried, Hunt suffered a late puncture, dropping him down the order.
He pitted, rejoined and charged through the field, crossing the line in third, unaware he had done enough to become champion until he climbed out of the car.
1986: Prost vs. Mansell vs. Piquet (Adelaide)
Three of F1’s most legendary drivers arrived in Australia with a shot at the title in 1986. It all seemed remarkably simple for Nigel Mansell, who could cruise to the championship with only a podium finish.
Nigel was sitting comfortably in third in the closing stages when, at 180mph on the back straight, his rear tyre exploded spectacularly in a shower of sparks.
With Mansell out, Williams panicked and brought his team-mate (and fellow contender) Nelson Piquet in for a precautionary stop.
The two Williams cars faltering in the final moments of the season handed the win – and the World Championship – to McLaren’s Alain Prost, who had been an outsider for the title for the entire race.
1994: Schumacher vs. Hill (Adelaide)
The 1994 title fight between Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill was settled in one of the most controversial moments in F1 history.
Leading by a single point, finishing ahead of Hill was the name of the game for Schumacher in the final round. And he was on course to do just that, but when he went off track and brushed the wall on Lap 36, Damon was ready to pounce.
As he returned to the track, Hill spied an opening, diving to the inside of the next corner. Schumacher turned in, and the pair collided in dramatic fashion. The German’s car was pitched into the air and sent into the tyre barrier, retiring instantly.
Hill’s wounded Williams limped back to the pits, but his suspension was damaged beyond repair. With both drivers out of the running, Schumacher claimed his first title by a solitary point.
1997: Villeneuve vs. Schumacher (Jerez)
Three years later, Schumacher was fighting for his third title and a first in red, when he was involved in another contentious championship-deciding collision, this time with Jacques Villeneuve.
Like in Adelaide, Schumacher topped the standings by a single point arriving in Jerez, and the nerves were palpable before the race even started.
Qualifying only ramped up the anticipation further, with Schumacher, Villeneuve and Heinz-Harald Frentzen all setting the exact same qualifying time down to the thousandth of a second. Jacques took pole ahead of Michael, having set his time first.
Schumacher took matters back into his hands off the start, seizing the lead from Villeneuve. But it was on lap 48 that the tension finally boiled over.
Villeneuve launched a move down the inside, and once again, Schumacher turned in, hitting the Williams’ sidepod before sliding feebly into the gravel.
Villeneuve’s car survived the impact unscathed, and he went on to finish third, enough to take the title. Schumacher was later disqualified from the championship standings for the incident.
2007: Raikkonen vs. Hamilton vs. Alonso (Sao Paulo)
Lewis Hamilton’s rookie season was one of the most remarkable in F1’s history. Even after his penultimate round pit lane blunder at Shanghai, he still arrived in Brazil leading the standings, four ahead of his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso and seven clear of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
Having started second, Hamilton only needed to stay out of trouble to take the title comfortably, but he dropped places early on before a gearbox glitch on Lap 9 sent him tumbling down to 18th.
While Hamilton fought valiantly, recovering all the way to seventh, his team-mate Alonso was unable to match Ferrari’s pace. Up front, Massa held a narrow margin over Raikkonen but, unsurprisingly, the pair swapped positions in the final round of pit stops.
Kimi took the win and with it, leapfrogged both McLarens by a single point to seal the title. After coming so close in 2003 and 2005, the Iceman had finally done enough to become Formula 1 World Champion.
2008: Hamilton vs. Massa (Sao Paulo)
Massa and Hamilton had traded blows throughout the following season. Once again, Hamilton entered the final round with a seven-point advantage over a Ferrari, only this time it was the Brazilian, and he was on home turf.
Massa did everything in his power to get the job done. Starting from pole, he led the race from the off and stormed through changeable conditions to a famous home victory at Interlagos.
Both contenders navigated increasing rainfall in the final five laps, switching to wet tyres while Timo Glock crucially opted to stay out on slicks.
With two laps to go, an up-and-coming Sebastian Vettel relegated Hamilton to sixth. As it stood, Massa would win the championship on countback, so Hamilton desperately needed the extra point for fifth place.
With the rain coming down heavier in the final two tours, Glock was haemorrhaging time on dry tyres.
On the final corner of the final lap, Hamilton swept past the Toyota to snatch fifth place, securing the points he needed to deny Massa and win his first title by a single point.
2010: Vettel vs. Alonso vs. Webber vs. Hamilton (Abu Dhabi)
For the first time ever, four drivers entered the 2010 finale with a mathematical chance of winning the title.
Fernando Alonso was the clear favourite, but a strategic error by Ferrari saw him pit early to cover Mark Webber.
Both drivers ended up stuck behind the Renault of Vitaly Petrov, unable to pass on the tight Yas Marina layout.
While they were frustrated in the midfield, Sebastian Vettel launched from pole and romped to victory. The young German kept his head down, won the race, and snatched the title to become the youngest champion in F1 history.
2012: Vettel vs. Alonso (Sao Paulo)
Interlagos delivered a thrilling decider once again in 2012, this with Vettel going one-on-one with Alonso.
The pair had been equally matched for much of the campaign, but in the final third, Sebastian went on a tear to take four back-to-back wins in Singapore, Japan, Korea and India to close the gap.
He arrived with a 13-point lead over Fernando, so it seemed like a straightforward race before the lights went out. But by the fourth corner, the Red Bull driver had been sent spinning around by Bruno Senna, significantly reducing the downforce of his car in the process.
Facing the wrong way and sitting last, Vettel began an epic recovery drive. In mixed weather conditions, and with an ailing car, he fought his way back up to sixth place. While Fernando had jumped from sixth on the grid to second at the flag, Sebastian had done enough to secure his third consecutive title by three points.
2021: Hamilton vs. Verstappen (Abu Dhabi)
After one of the most memorable seasons in the modern era, and intense battling all year long, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen arrived in Abu Dhabi level on points.
It looked like Lewis had the eighth title in the bag, having fended off Max on the opening lap and controlling the race into the closing stages. Then, a brush with the barrier for Nicholas Latifi brought out the Safety Car.
Verstappen pitted for fresh Soft tyres while Hamilton stayed out on old Hards. When the race restarted for one final lap of racing, Verstappen used his tyre advantage to pass Hamilton into Turn 5.
The Brit fought back, lunging to the outside of Turn 9, but without DRS, he was unable to get the better of Verstappen, who went on to win the race and his first title.
It was a controversial and historic end to one of the fiercest rivalries the sport has ever seen, still talked about to this day as one of its greatest championship battles.
