Hamilton is F1 Driver's Champion – Barely

In a fittingly amazing race for a fittingly amazing year in Formula One, Lewis Hamilton survived to win the Driver's Championship by one point over a very stout Felipe Massa. Although he is now champion, questions remain about Hamilton's composure.

When the pressure is off, Hamilton is a driver to behold. His drive in the rain this year in the British Grand Prix was simple amazing. When the pressure ratchets up, however, young Hamilton gets very twitchy. This was particularly evident when he managed to throw away a 17 point lead in the championship in the 2007 season.

This year found Hamilton being twitchy again as we entered the last three races of the season. He drove an immature race in Japan, taking risks that were completely unnecessary and eventually ending up out of the points. Then he righted the ship in China and drove a smart race to a convincing win with nary a risky chance taken.

Heading into the final race of the season, the Brazilian Grand Prix, Hamilton had a commanding 10 point lead. Even if Felipe Massa finished first, Hamilton need only finish 5th or better to win. Simply put, the race called for a mature, composed drive by Hamilton and he seemed to be on course to just such a drive. He consistently stayed out of trouble and paced himself around in third or fourth place for much of the race. When the race got down to the nitty gritty of the last few laps, he got twitchy again.

Rain started falling with roughly five laps left. Hamilton has shown throughout the year that he is the best driver in rain. Frankly, it has not been close. He has dominated pretty much every race that had rain. So, why did he nearly fall apart in Brazil?

With two laps left, Hamilton was pacing around in front of Sebastian Vettel, in the privateer Toro Rosso car. In a moment of brain lock, Hamilton seemed to slow for no particular reason. Not only did Vettel pass him, but the lapped BMW of Robert Kubica blew past him as well. Now in sixth place, Hamilton was in position to choke away the title again by one point!

What saved him? The third place Toyota failed to get wet tires when the rain came out and lost a whopping 18 seconds on the lap. Hamilton drove past him in literally the last corner of the race and season. It was so close that the Ferrari pit was going nuts thinking Felipe Massa had miraculously one the championship. Instead, it was Hamilton's to take by the skin of his teeth.

Hamilton is now the Driver's Champion and should be congratulated. At the end of the year, he had the most points and is a deserving winner. That being said, his penchant for falling apart at the end of the season cannot be overlooked. One can hazard his ability to come to grips with his nerves will be the difference between him eventually being viewed on the same scale as a Senna, Prost and Schumacher or as a less scintillating champion like Damon Hill.

Dirk Gibson writes for DCJAutoParts.com - find auto parts for every make and model.