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How Lauda won F1's closest title battle

The 1984 F1 title fight remains the only season where the winning margin for the champion was less than a point. Niki Lauda reveals how he denied his much faster team-mate Alain Prost a first world crown

Eight times the battle for the drivers' crown has been decided by a single digit - 1958, 1961, 1964, 1976, 1981, 1994, 2007 and 2008 - but only once has it been settled by less.

One might argue the 2008 battle between Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa was closer - in the sense Massa crossed the Brazilian Grand Prix finish line as 'champion', only for Hamilton to steal it back again with a last-gasp move on Timo Glock moments later. But in the statistical sense there remains none tighter than the 1984 contest between Niki Lauda and Alain Prost.

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