The 2025 Formula 1 drivers' championship has come down to a three-way fight going into the final race of the season, with Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri all in contention.
Briton Norris leads Red Bull's Verstappen, who is seeking a fifth consecutive title, by 12 points with Piastri a further four points back.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementMcLaren drivers Norris and Piastri are both aiming for their first F1 title.
It is not often that three drivers go into the final race with a chance of winning the championship. BBC Sport looks back at some previous occasions when it's happened...
Farina pips Fangio and Fagioli - 1950
Giuseppe Farina (right) just beat Juan Manuel Fangio to the first Formula 1 World Championship [Getty Images]The first Formula 1 World Championship went down to the final race, in Italy at Monza, with Alfa Romeo's Juan Manuel Fangio, Giuseppe Farina and Luigi Fagioli all in contention.
Going into the grand prix, Argentine Fangio led Italian Fagioli by two points and Farina, another Italian, by four. Mechanical problems ended Fangio's afternoon and Farina came through to win the race and secure the inaugural drivers' championship, with Fagioli in third in the race and the overall standings.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementFangio would go on to win five titles between 1951 and 1957 and is considered one of F1's all-time greats.
Brabham pushes to the limit - 1959
An exhausted Jack Brabham takes a drink after pushing his Cooper over the line to win the 1959 title [Getty Images]Australian Jack Brabham led the championship before the season-ending 1959 United States Grand Prix in Sebring, Florida, with Britons Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks still in contention.
Moss, who was in second, needed to win or finish second with fellow Cooper driver Brabham behind him, while Ferrari's Brooks had to win to have any chance, and even then could still be beaten to the title.
Moss led from pole position but retired with a broken gearbox early on, handing the initiative to Brabham, who had been tracking his rival a short distance behind.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementBrabham led almost to the finish, before running out of fuel on the last lap. Brooks passed him for third but Brabham pushed his Cooper across the line to take fourth place and the first of his three world titles. It was also the first achieved in a rear-engined F1 car.
Battle of the Britons - 1964
John Surtees, pictured at the Mexican Grand Prix where he won the F1 drivers' championship, took the 500cc motorbike titles in 1956 and again from 1958-60 [Getty Images]John Surtees became the only man to win world titles on two wheels and four with his F1 championship in 1964.
Surtees trailed fellow Englishman Graham Hill by five points before the decider in Mexico, while Scot Jim Clark was in third, a further four points behind.
BRM's Hill, the 1962 champion, was delayed by a collision with Surtees' Ferrari team-mate Lorenzo Bandini. Clark, driving a Lotus, was then on course to win after dominating from the front, but was forced to stop on the last lap with an oil leak.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSeeing Clark's problems, Ferrari ordered Bandini to let Surtees by into second place, which gave him the title by one point from Hill.
Piquet takes title in a parking lot - 1981
The start of the 1981 Caesars Palace Grand Prix, with Williams' Alan Jones leading into the first corner [Getty Images]The Las Vegas Grand Prix, focused on the Strip, has been generally considered a big success since it was established on the F1 calendar in 2023, but it is not quite the first iteration of the event.
In 1981 and 1982, a Caesars Palace Grand Prix was staged on a track built in the parking lot of the Caesars Palace hotel.
Neither the venue nor the circuit are fondly remembered, though it hosted championship deciders in both years.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn 1981, Williams' Carlos Reutemann had a one-point lead over Brabham's Nelson Piquet with Ligier's Jacques Laffite also still in contention.
Frenchman Lafitte needed to finish first or second to have a chance, at a time when only the top six drivers scored points, but Argentine Reutemann looked well set when he qualified on pole.
However, he dropped back throughout the race, eventually finishing eighth, and was lapped by race winner and team-mate Alan Jones.
Brazilian Piquet struggled with heat exhaustion in the final stages but was able to come home fifth, giving him the two points he needed to overtake Reutemann, with Laffite in sixth.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement'And colossally that's Mansell' - 1986
Nigel Mansell finished second in the 1986, 1987 and 1991 drivers' championships, before eventually winning it in 1992 [Getty Images]The day when Nigel Mansell's dreams, as well as his left rear tyre, shattered.
The Briton went into the 1986 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide knowing that a third-place finish would ensure he won the drivers' championship.
With nine points on offer for a race win, McLaren's Alain Prost, the 1985 champion, was six behind with Mansell's Williams colleague Nelson Piquet seven back. 'Team-mate' does not seem appropriate here, given their fractious relationship.
Mansell was secure in that third place, behind Piquet and Prost, with 19 laps to go when his tyre exploded down the 200mph Brabham Straight. BBC commentator Murray Walker memorably exclaimed: "And look at that! And colossally that's Mansell!"
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWilliams called Piquet in to change his tyres as a precaution against the same thing happening - McLaren's Keke Rosberg had retired from the lead with a puncture shortly before Mansell's drama.
That left Frenchman Prost to bring his McLaren home first and secure back-to-back championships, while Mansell had to wait until 1992 before finally winning the title.
Hamilton's near miss in rookie year - 2007
Kimi Raikkonen came from 17 points behind with two races to go to win the 2007 title [Getty Images]Arguably, this should have been Lewis Hamilton's world title in his stunning rookie season but it all went wrong for the Briton in the final two races.
After winning the Japanese Grand Prix in extreme wet conditions, the 22-year-old led McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso by 12 points with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen 17 behind. This was when drivers received 10 points for a race win.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn China, Hamilton slid off into a gravel trap on worn tyres, while in the finale in Brazil, a poor start followed by a problem with a hydraulic valve, which caused him to be stuck in fourth gear for 25 seconds, left him at the back of the field.
Although he fought back to seventh, which brought him two points, he needed to finish fifth to be certain of the championship.
Finn Raikkonen took the title by winning the last two races, with Alonso - whose relationship with McLaren had broken down completely during a tumultuous season - only managing third in the race and the championship.
Vettel top standings when it matters most - 2010
Sebastian Vettel won four consecutive drivers' championships between 2010 and 2013 [Getty Images]This was actually a four-way fight in Abu Dhabi, although Lewis Hamilton only had the faintest of chances, being 24 points behind leader Fernando Alonso heading into the final race with two other drivers between them in the standings.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSpaniard Alonso, in his first season at Ferrari, had an eight-point advantage over Red Bull's Mark Webber, with Sebastian Vettel in third, 15 points back.
Although German Vettel won from pole, the title should still have been Alonso's.
However, a strategic error from Ferrari in bringing Alonso in for an early pit stop, to cover off Webber, left him stuck behind Renault's Vitaly Petrov for the remainder of the race. His seventh-place finish, with Webber in eighth, allowed Vettel to pip both of them.
It was the first time the Red Bull driver had led the championship all year. And Max Verstappen is now aiming to replicate that feat in Abu Dhabi this Sunday...
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