F1 world title race: Can Norris, Verstappen and Piastri produce drama of a Senna v Prost

World champions are not decided often enough at the final grands prix of the season, rarer still that three drivers can win the title on the final dash to the chequered flag - so this is one to relish.

You have to go back 15 years for the last time three men went to the startline with ambitions of hitting the jackpot and the outcome that day will hearten Oscar Piastri, who sits third, four points adrift of Max Verstappen and 16 shy of his McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.

Back in 2010, Fernando Alonso arrived in Abu Dhabi eight points clear of Mark Webber, but it was the Australian’s Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel who upset the odds, overhauling a 15-point deficit with a pole-to-flag victory as the Spaniard got bottled up in seventh.

Three years earlier, Lewis Hamilton in his rookie season arrived at the finale at Interlagos with a four-point lead over his bitter McLaren team-mate Alonso and seven over Kimi Raikkonen but it was the flying Finn in the Ferrari who snatched glory - in another portent for Piastri.

Other than that, the final race denouements or recent years have generally been two-car races and have always involved Hamilton; the Brit beating Felipe Massa on the final corner in 2008, overcoming Nico Rosberg in 2014 and losing two years later, and then famously and controversially losing to Verstappen in a final-lap shootout after the safety car had pulled in four years ago.

The ramifications of that night were far-reaching, a true changing of the guard, and one of the most dramatic nights in the sport’s history. And yet, when you think about title showdowns in Formula One history, two names rush round the corner at you quicker than any others: Senna and Prost.

In the late 1980s, early 1990s, in an era of great sporting duals - Carl Lewis v Ben Johnson, Marvin Hagler v Sugar Ray Leonard, Frank Bruno v Mike Tyson - Senna v Prost was box office.

Their two title jousts at Suzuka at the climax of the 1989 and 1990 seasons is the stuff of not just F1, but sporting legend. Both came in the penultimate races of the season, in ’89 Senna needing to win both final races to pinch the title from Prost.

The methodical Frenchman led the enigmatic Brazilian with seven laps remaining when on lap 46, he approached the Casio chicane with his McLaren team-mate Senna tearing up from behind. Prost squeezed him out, the two cars collided and Prost was out.

Senna, defiant and bullish, refused to give in, was given a bump-start in the escape road, pitted for a new front wing, and in typical fashion won the race. But the stewards disqualified him for illegally joining the track and Prost was champion.

Twelve months later, the shoe was on the other foot. Prost, now with Ferrari, trailed the McLaren of Senna by 16 points and needed to win the final two races. This time it got nowhere near lap 46 at Suzuka, with the drama unfolding on the first corner, Senna wiping out pole-sitter Prost to exact his revenge and win the title.

It was sporting drama of the highest order, two of the very best drivers who hated losing to the other more than they loved winning, whose respect for the other never really saw the light of day until a few years later when Prost was a pall bearer at Senna’s funeral.

So what does Abu Dhabi 2025 have in store? The bitterness of Suzuka or the last lap dramas of Interlagos and four years ago? If the pre-race press conferences are anything to go by, it’s all pleasantries with the occasional thinly-veiled joust.

Norris, the smiling Brit, leads the way and looks to have the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Verstappen is the veteran with four world titles already in the bag, ready to strike the instant he senses vulnerability.

Piastri, the boyish Australian, needs history to strike a third time.

Will he yield to team orders? Will McLaren, who have taken an admirable stance in resisting the chance to favour one driver overr the other which would surely have closed the door on Verstappen by now, ask Piastri to allow Norris by him if it means their man is champion?

It would create negative headlines for the sport if team orders decide it, but this is round 24 of a marathon season, a lot has affected the outcome before what happens on that final lap. But if McLaren have a champion again, their first since Hamilton in 2008, should they care?

Senna and Prost, title-winning alumni of that famous marque who were hell bent on being No 1, certainly wouldn’t.