It’s the last lap of the last race of the season. And the title seems sewn up. Indeed the team is already celebrating their man’s victory. But then something happens involving a complete outsider and suddenly it is snatched away. He is not World Champion any more, instead a young upstart has nicked it from under his nose.
Sound familiar? Well it should, because that’s exactly how Lewis Hamilton won his first Formula 1 World Championship back in 2008. Then you’ll remember it was Felipe Massa who was so unceremoniously de-throned, after he’d actually won the race, by Hamilton overtaking Timo Glock’s Toyota, the latter struggling on dry tyres as rain fell around the circuit. That day he won his first title by a single point. Yesterday he lost what would have been his eighth by six.