Ranking the Top 5 Last-Race Title Deciders in Formula 1 History

So whose side are you on?

The 2014 Formula One World Championship will be decided at this weekend's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, the Mercedes drivers, in contention for the title.

Hamilton, leading his teammate by 17 points in the drivers' standings, can afford to finish on the podium to clinch his second world crown, but the question mark that is double points could cause chaos and provide an opening for Rosberg, who will be hoping to emulate his father, Keke, by becoming the world champion.

Formula One has been fortunate to have plenty of tight title battles in recent years, with six of the last nine championship scraps going down to the wire.

And as the latest final-race title decider approaches, here are the top five season finales in the history of F1.

Honourable Mentions

Kimi Raikkonen won the 2007 Brazilian Grand Prix and with it that year's world championship for Ferrari, with the Finnish driver overturning a seven-point deficit to championship leader Lewis Hamilton—not to mention a three-point gap to Fernando Alonso—to claim the title by one point ahead of the McLaren drivers.

Ferrari's joy in '07 was in stark contrast to their emotions in the previous season's event, with Michael Schumacher suffering a technical issue in qualifying, as well as a puncture in the early stages of the grand prix, to concede the 2006 title to Alonso.

Despite producing one of the finest recovery drives in Formula One history to finish fourth in his final race for Ferrari, Schumacher missed out on the crown by 13 points to the Spaniard, who became the sport's youngest-ever double world champion at that point.

Further back, Schumacher missed out on the 1997 world championship after colliding with Jacques Villeneuve, his title rival, in the season-ending European Grand Prix, sliding into the gravel trap and into retirement after trying and failing to take the Williams driver out of the race.

5. 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel's tentativeness at the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix of 2012 almost cost him the world title, with the German finding himself pointing in the wrong direction at the rear of the field just four corners into the race.

It was arguably the best thing that could have happened to the Red Bull driver, who was at that point forced to throw caution to the wind and embark upon an impressive recovery through the pack, making no mistakes despite being on dry tyres as rain fell at the Interlagos circuit.

The speed of Vettel's recovery—he made it up to sixth by Lap 8—left Fernando Alonso, who had started the day 13 points behind the German, needing a miracle to claim his third world crown.

That miracle almost came in the form of a slow pit stop on Lap 55, which left Vettel stranded in 12th as Alonso entered the podium positions following a crash between Nico Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton.

Vettel, however, recovered once more and was gifted sixth position by Michael Schumacher, his compatriot, in the latter stages of a race that ended under safety car conditions after Paul di Resta aquaplaned into retirement with just one full lap remaining.

Despite Alonso's second-place finish, Vettel had done enough to claim his third consecutive crown by a margin of three points.

4. 1994 Australian Grand Prix

The 1994 campaign will forever be remembered as the year when Formula One lost three-time world champion Ayrton Senna, but the season finale at the Adelaide Street Circuit was a hugely significant moment in the sport's history.

The Australian Grand Prix was set to be a winner-takes-all event, with just one point separating Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill—who had won all but one race between them until that point—in the drivers' championship.

And it was the German who took the early advantage, inheriting the lead with Hill behind after Nigel Mansell, the pole-sitter, made a slow getaway.

That was how it stayed until Lap 36 when Schumacher made an error and hit the wall at the East Terrace corner, with Hill wasting no time in switching to the inside of the following turn.

However, Schumacher, in a rush of blood, turned toward the apex of the corner and clipped Hill's Williams, flinging his own car into the air, into the tyre wall and into retirement.

The Benetton driver, however, had caused enough damage to the suspension of Hill's car to prevent the Briton from continuing, securing the first of his seven world championships.

3. 1986 Australian Grand Prix

Three drivers entered the 1986 Australian Grand Prix with aspirations of taking the title, with championship leader Nigel Mansell the favourite for the crown ahead of Alain Prost and Nelson Piquet.

Mansell set a comfortable pole position, but a poor start saw him lose places to Ayrton Senna, Piquet and Keke Rosberg, who soon took the lead and established a comfortable gap to the chasing pack before retiring due to a puncture on Lap 63 of 82.

Piquet inherited the lead from Prost, whom Mansell had let through with little resistance in the knowledge that third place would be good enough for the championship.

However, the British driver suffered a puncture of his own on Lap 64—the sight of the Williams creating sparks on the Brabham Straight would become one of the most iconic moments in F1 history—which created a two-horse race between Piquet and Prost.

With two drivers suffering tyre blowouts in quick succession—Prost, too, had a puncture earlier in the race—Williams took the precautionary step of calling Piquet, whose car was faster than the McLaren, to the pits for a change of tyres.

Despite cutting the gap, Piquet could not catch Prost, who pulled up just yards after the finish line due to his car running out of fuel as the world champion by a two-point margin.

2. 1976 Japanese Grand Prix

The 1976 Formula One season was the subject of the 2013 film Rush, and the campaign's crescendo had a storyline that even those in Hollywood couldn't make up.

Niki Lauda, the Ferrari driver, and James Hunt, his McLaren counterpart, arrived at the Japanese Grand Prix at Fuji Speedway separated by just three points in the drivers' standings.

The monsoon conditions of race day led to Lauda—less than three months after suffering severe burns in a crash at the Nurburgring—making the courageous decision to withdraw from the grand prix at the end of the second lap, leaving Hunt free to take the title.

Hunt seemed on course to take advantage of the Austrian's withdrawal, leading for much of the race until he began to struggle for pace as the track began to dry, with the British driver overtaken by Patrick Depailler and Mario Andretti in quick succession.

He was given some respite when Depailler suffered a puncture, but Hunt encountered the same problem soon afterwards, with the consequent pit stop dropping him to fifth, and out of contention, on Lap 70 of 73.

As noted by The Independent's David Tremayne, Hunt drove the final three laps "in a red mist" under the assumption that the championship was lost, leaning on his fresh tyres to pass Alan Jones and Clay Regazzoni to ultimately finish third behind Andretti and Depailler.

Given the hectic end to the race, it wasn't until after the chequered flag that Hunt came to understand that he had pipped Lauda to the title by one point. 

1. 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix

After winning the penultimate race of the season in China, Lewis Hamilton needed a mere fifth-place finish in the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix to clinch his first world championship.

But it was easier said than done at Interlagos, a venue where he lost the title due to a brief gearbox problem the previous year. 

The McLaren driver ran within the top five for much of the race as Ferrari's Felipe Massa, his title rival, scurried away at the front to convert pole position into a relatively straightforward grand prix victory.

Hamilton's progress, meanwhile, was disrupted by a late rain shower, which led to Toyota's Timo Glock taking the gamble of trying to make it to the end on dry tyres, demoting the Briton—who like his fellow front-runners had taken the safety-first option of pitting for intermediates—to fifth.

This became sixth as the McLaren grip on inters, with Sebastian Vettel getting past and pulling away with just over three laps remaining. 

All seemed lost as Massa crossed the line to win the race, but Hamilton caught Glock, who was forced to tip-toe around the track as the rain intensified, at the final corner of the final lap to reclaim fifth and take the title by a single point.