F1: Top 5 closest world championship title battles of the decade.

#1 2008 season- Hamilton clinches a cliffhanger ahead of Massa by 1 point

Lewis Hamilton celebrates his maiden World Championship title

The 2008 F1 season proved just why the sport remains one marked with trials and tribulations; heartbreaks and sensational moments, and often, all rolled into one grand moment: the fitting finale.

If there was a Formula 1 season that perhaps spelled the biggest heartbreak of the last decade or so, then it was the 2008 season where there was despair for Massa but glory for a young driver, who currently stands on the verge of winning his fifth driver's title, ten years from the Brazilian Grand Prix of 2008- Lewis Hamilton.

The season decorated by Felipe Massa's 6 race wins when compared to Lewis Hamilton's 5, saw dramatic scenes at the 2008 Interlagos Grand Prix; Massa's home race where despite winning the finale event- standing on top of the podium amid stunned fans- Massa had tears of agony and despair whilst Lewis went, "I can't believe it, champion of the world!" in garnering a fighting fifth.

Lewis' fighting recovery having lost a few places initially was marked by a phenomenal run to the middle-pack of the grid, having trailed behind the race leader. All it took for the Briton was to mount his car inside the top-five and that is what he did. In the end, in placing his recovering McLaren Mercedes, then at par with the sensational Ferrari of Felipe Massa, the former snatched the Brazilian's chances of gaining what could've been a sure-shot title triumph. In the end, Massa's difference to Lewis was by a painfully dainty margin of 1 point.