With double points on offer this weekend for the final Formula One race in Abu Dhabi, the 2014 championship battle is on between the two Mercedes teammates.
All season the duo have been battling for the championship with the fastest car on the grid, after the introduction of the new technical regulations for 2014.
Heading into Abu Dhabi the deficit is now 17 points between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.
With 50 points on offer this weekend for the winner it is anyone’s championship to win.
Can Hamilton hold on? Or will Rosberg take advantage of the extra points and take his first title?
Here is what you need to know about the decisive round of the championship.
What does Hamilton need to do to win the title?
Hamilton is the 1.22 favourite with the bookies to take out the crown in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
The task is simple for Hamilton – finish in the top two and the 2014 Championship is his. So if Mercedes can record their 12th one-two finish for the season then Hamilton will be the champion.
If he finishes outside of the top two then the championship opens up for Rosberg.
A win by Rosberg, and a third place finish for Hamilton, would give the German the title, but Hamilton has only finished third twice this season.
Rosberg will look to the likes of Sebastian Vettel, Felipe Massa, Valtteri Bottas and Australia’s Dan Ricciardo to provide help for him to win the title.
A retirement would also be beneficial to either driver – a mistake, or a mechanical problem, would hand their rival a major chance at the title. But hopefully for the fans, and both drivers, that doesn’t happen.
Listed below are the scenarios that Hamilton needs to win the title dependent on where Rosberg finishes.
• If Rosberg finishes first then Hamilton needs to finish second to win the title.
• If Rosberg finishes second then Hamilton needs to finish fifth to win the title.
• If Rosberg finishes third then Hamilton needs to finish sixth to win the title.
• If Rosberg finishes fourth then Hamilton needs to finish eighth to win the title.
• If Rosberg finishes fifth then Hamilton needs to finish in ninth to win the title.
• If Rosberg finishes sixth or lower then Hamilton wins the title.
Previous final round battles for the championship and teammate battles
This weekend is the 28th Formula One championship to be decided in the last round, and the first since 2012. On that day, Sebastian Vettel finished sixth, to clinch the title in Brazil.
In the 28 deciding final rounds of the championship, ten drivers have been able to come from behind to clinch the title.
The last driver to do that was Vettel in 2010. This was also the last – and only – battle at Abu Dhabi for the championship before this weekend.
Heading into that round Vettel was behind both Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber in the championship, but Vettel dominated the race to steal the title.
The comeback also happened in the first ever Formula One championship in 1950. Giuseppe Farina won the final race at the Italian Grand Prix to beat Juan Manuel Fangio to the inaugural title.
This would also be the first ever battle between teammates.
In the history of Formula One there have been six battles between teammates in the final round. Two of them have involved Australians and on both occasions the Aussies were beaten.
In 2010, Webber was beaten by Vettel, while in 1967 Sir Jack Brabham lost the title to Danny Hulme in the final round.
Other battles have included the 1984 battle between Alain Prost and Nikki Lauda where, despite winning the last two races, Prost lost the championship by half a point in the closest championship finish in Formula One history.
This wouldn’t be the only teammate battle for Prost. Famously in 1988 and 1989, he battled with Ayrton Senna for the title with McLaren, but both championships were resolved with one round to spare.
McLaren was also involved in another teammate battle when a young rookie took it to his teammate for the 2007 championship – that rookie was Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton and Fernando Alonso – who joined in 2007 – had a bitter battle for the championship which went to the final round. Unfortunately for both of them, Kimi Raikkonen was also involved in the title race as he stole the championship by one point.
One year later, Hamilton gained revenge. At the final round of the season, he finished fifth to steal the championship from Felipe Massa.
Massa, who won the race, thought he won the title when he crossed the finish line. Unbeknown to him, Hamilton overtook Timo Glock in the final few corners to take the title in one of the most dramatic finishes in the history of Formula One.
This experience will help Hamilton immensely this weekend. He knows pressure from both ends and knows how to deal with jubilation and despair.
Rosberg doesn’t have that, and hasn’t been close to winning a championship until this year. How he handles the pressure will be an interesting part of the weekend.
No matter what happens though, these two drivers will enter history as being just the seventh teammate combination to fight for a championship in the final round.
May the best driver win.
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