JUST like the last Formula One season, it all comes down to the last race of the year - Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix.
In a thrilling season in which seven different drivers won races and four led the standings, Lewis Hamilton arrives in Brazil with a seven-point lead over home favourite Felipe Massa.
The McLaren star needs only a fifth-place finish or better to ensure he becomes F1's youngest champion at age 23, and the first British champion since Damon Hill in 1996.
Yet, by coincidence, he is exactly where he was in last year's finale - holding a seven-point lead. He drove a poor race then, finishing seventh and conceding the F1 title to Kimi Raikkonen. This time, however, he believes he is ready.
He said: "Last year, things didn't end up too well for me. I went to Interlagos with the title battle still up in the air and all my emotions just bubbling up and down.
"Things could be very different this year. I don't need to win the race, but that won't stop me from going into the weekend looking to be as strong as possible." Standing in his way is Ferrari's Massa, who can still become the first non-European driver to win the title since Canadian Jacques Villeneuve in 1997, and the first Brazilian champion since the late Ayrton Senna in 1991.
But he has to win or finish second, and rely on Hamilton finishing way down the field. He is already playing mind games, saying: "All the pressure will be on Hamilton, especially when you think about what happened at this race last year."
However, Massa could fall victim to the inexplicable mistakes made by Ferrari during the year.
The most embarrassing one was at the first night race in Singapore last month, when a botched pit stop cost Massa the likely victory.
Still, Massa is expected to be boosted by nearly 70,000 fans at the 4.3km, anti-clockwise Interlagos track.
"I know all the tricks and secrets of this track, and I'll have the people behind me," Massa said.
The Brazilian is desperate to become the first driver to win a title in front of his home crowd since the inaugural F1 season in 1950, when Italy's Giuseppe Farina won at the season-ending Italian Grand Prix.
Yet, in Hamilton, he faces an opponent whose innate racing skills have catapulted him to stardom in double-quick time.
He has said that last year's near-miss was beneficial to his F1 tutelage, and he is more than ready to assume the throne.
The young star v the home favourite - everything is in place for a rip-roaring end to the F1 season.
And it is Hamilton's race and title to lose. Once bitten, twice shy - the Briton is unlikely to run afoul of Interlagos again.
