In F1, like many sports, the fate of an entire season often comes right down to the wire - and it is not always pretty.
In the heat of battle, the so-called pinnacle of motorsport has had its fair share or controversial finales.
The ill-tempered Ayrton Senna-Alain Prost championship fights of the late 1980s and early 1990s made way for Michael Schumacher and his contentious title deciders in 1994 and 1997.
After that, F1 enjoyed a period of relative calm when it came to season finales - but that does not mean they did not occur.
Some of the greatest championship showdowns took place in the late 2000s and early 2010s, including Lewis Hamilton's near-miss in 2007, his redemption in 2008 and Sebastian Vettel's improbable recovery in 2012.
Following 24 years of relatively straight-forward conclusions to campaigns, F1 was brought back to earth with a thud in 2021, when Hamilton and Max Verstappen's fiercely contested season descended into chaos in the year-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Perhaps tainted by a smidgen on recency bias, a whopping 76% percent of F1 fans view that fateful race at the Yas Marina Circuit to be the most controversial championship decider in the series' history - and no other option came close.
Check out the full results of the latest poll by RacingNews365 below. Let us know what you think in the comments section.
What was F1's most controversial championship decider?
| Answer | Share of vote |
|---|---|
| 1964 | 1.59% |
| 1989 | 7.14% |
| 1990 | 3.17% |
| 1994 | 5.56% |
| 1997 | 3.97% |
| 2021 | 76.19% |
| Other | 2.38% |
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