After challenging for the Formula One World Drivers' Championship during his debut season in 2007, Lewis Hamilton had a point to prove in 2008.
He lost the Drivers' title at the last race of the season by a single point to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, so was expected to be a major challenger in his second season. But no-one expected Hamilton's second season to produce and even bigger nail-biter than his first.
Much like 2007, the 2008 championship came down to the last race of the season, at Interlagos in Brazil.
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Hamilton had battled it out all season with Ferraris of Raikkonen and Felipe Massa, but it was Massa who appeared as Hamilton's biggest threat by the last part of the season, after Raikkonen suffered a run of poor finishes.
By the last race of the season, Hamilton led Massa by a slim margin of just seven points, meaning he only had to finish fifth to take his first world title, even though Massa was starting on pole, while Hamilton was lining up fourth on the starting grid.
During the race things went largely to expectations, with Massa pulling out a handy lead over Toyota's Jarno Trulli, while Hamilton battling it out with Sebastian Vettel in his Torro Rosso for that vital fifth place, but then rain hit on the 63rd lap of the 71 lap race. After the ensuing scramble for intermediate tyres, Massa still led, while Hamilton was in fifth, thanks to Toyota's Timo Glock opting to stay out on dry tyres.
By lap 69 the rain had intensified, and Hamilton ran wide after allowing a backmarker to unlap himself, allowing Vettel through into fifth and leaving Hamilton staring down the barrel of losing a second consecutive championship by a point.
As Massa cruised over the line for the final time a few laps later, Ferrari assumed they had taken out the championship, but no one accounted for Timo Glock, who was still out on dry tyres in the increasing rain. Hamilton quickly bore down on him and, amid Ferrari's celebrations, slipped past the floundering Toyota through the last few corners of the Interlagos track, gaining back that oh-so-valuable fifth place in one of the closest finishes to an F1 championships ever.
Until the 2021 Abu Dhabi GP, that is. But that is a whole different story...
