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The greatest Formula 1 title showdowns - part one

Formula 1 has had its fair share of classic championship showdowns over the years, from Hamilton v Rosberg in 2016 to Schumacher v Villeneuve, Hamilton v Massa and even some deciders with more than two drivers fighting it out.

In 2017 the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will once again play host to the season finale, where we could get our first head-to-head battle between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel for the crown.

But with the 2017 story still to run its course before the teams and drivers head to Yas Marina Circuit on November 26, we're looking back at the most spectacular final-round title deciders in F1's history with our countdown that will be updated on a weekly basis until we reach #1:

7) 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Alonso v Webber v Vettel v Hamilton

A title finale like no other. It had four drivers in contention - a record. Unusually, neither of its two chief protagonists triumphed. They boxed each other into a corner; the eventual champion leapt from a distant third. While, conversely, the era's absurdity was underlined.

Arriving in Abu Dhabi Ferrari's Fernando Alonso led Red Bull's Mark Webber by eight points. That year Red Bull had been mainly quickest, but wasteful. Alonso's late run got him ahead. The chances of Webber's team-mate Sebastian Vettel, 15 back, seemed purely mathematical. In qualifying things got better for the Spanish double champion as Webber started fifth to his third. Poleman Vettel looked untouchable; McLaren strong. Yet with Webber behind, fourth would be enough.

A lap-one safety car tilted matters. The medium tyre could run interminably so many midfielders made then their solitary stop, including Nico Rosberg's Mercedes and Vitaly Petrov's Renault.

Webber pitted on lap 11. Ferrari, spooked by Webber's speed and reckoning the supersofts were about to 'fall off', brought Alonso in on lap 15. He remained ahead of Webber, but fell behind Rosberg and Petrov, and needed to clear both on track to be champion.

But this version of F1 did not allow it. Alonso sat in Petrov's trails for the remaining 40 laps, neither passing nor having the possibility to. He finished seventh, one spot ahead of Webber.

Vettel stayed out, led and won - becoming the sport's youngest champion. "When I crossed the line," Vettel said, "I did not know if it was enough or not. To be on that list with drivers like Ayrton Senna, Michael Schumacher..."

The emotion came not just from Vettel. There was, typical, Ferrari recrimination. "We did not take into consideration the difficulty of passing cars on track," said team principal Stefano Domenicali with sangfroid.

Moreover it was a watershed. This was the first time Vettel had led the world championship ever, let alone that season. It heralded his four titles in a row. Alonso's title number three remains unclaimed.

8) 1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix
Reutemann v Piquet v Laffite

Not the most thrilling finale, but possibly the strangest.

It was apt for a strange year. One that started with people thinking there wouldn't be F1 as we knew it.

Once the season did get underway cars mostly ran in flagrant breach of the rules. Then in its three-driver title showdown all three fell over the line. The championship winner did so almost in spite of himself.

Williams' enigmatic Carlos Reutemann started the season superbly, but faltered from mid-summer. Brabham's Nelson Piquet did roughly the opposite. Reutemann was a point ahead for the decider; Ligier's Jacques Laffite six shy was an outsider.

But the new venue for the finale - winding around Caesars Palace car park in Las Vegas - changed the game. The heat sapped, and it had a twisting left-handed layout. Stamina would count. "I think, for sure, that Carlos is going to be world champion," Gilles Villeneuve commented, "because he is much stronger than Piquet."

Reutemann's effortless pole cemented the apparent inevitability. Piquet was fourth; Laffite 12th. But Reutemann's race drive was inexplicable.

He faded to nothing in a way never fully explained. He was fourth at the first corner; seventh after three laps. Not long later Piquet passed him with little resistance. The Argentinian finished a lapped eighth.

Reutemann afterwards talked about poor handling, mismatched tyres, gearbox problems... But they do not explain his lack of fight. He was one indeed notorious for dropping off when things weren't perfect.

Laffite drove tenaciously to second, then his tyres went off. This left Piquet needing only sixth place for the title. Yet he was, as Autosport's Jeff Hutchinson explained, "on his last reserves of strength". He faded to fifth and with another lap could have lost everything. But, driving by instinct, he got home with two seconds to spare.

While all this was going on Reutemann's team-mate Alan Jones disappeared into the distance to win, in what everyone thought was his last race before retirement.

Zdroj: autosport.com