The Observer

What a weekend for Englishmen to savour. On Saturday our rugby team will do battle to complete one of the greatest comebacks ever seen in sport.

Then on Sunday a 22-year-old from Hertfordshire will attempt to do what no one has ever done: to win the Formula One World Championship at the first attempt.

To reach the World Cup final was beyond the wildest expectations for a rugby team that had fallen so far from anything like good form. And for this final to be against the same South Africans who gave them a humiliating 36-0 whipping just a matter of weeks ago - in the same tournament - makes it even tastier.

As for Lewis Hamilton, he must beat a two-time world champion teammate, whose petulance and political war games have added a bitter edge to a fight that has echoes of the titanic duels of those giants of the past, Senna and Prost.

What's more, there's a cool Finn in a Ferrari ready to pounce at the slightest chance the McLaren boys might inadvertently show him.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso © LAT

This is what sport is all about. It doesn't get any better.

But for England and Hamilton, does it matter if they don't win their respective world titles? It seems like a stupid question, really, don't you think? Of course it matters. For the rugby players and the driver, this is everything. They have dedicated their lives to get to this point in time and now they face the ultimate test: to deliver when it really counts.

And for their fans, it means almost as much. They'll experience that dull ache in the pit of the stomach, that cold sweat of fear, born from the threat of failure - and of a victory they don't dare to imagine. These are the feelings that tie us together as sports fans.

Now, you might not care less about the rugby. Fair enough. But given that you are reading this on a motorsport website, you'll have some emotion about the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Whether you are hooked on Hamilton, fanatical about Fernando, or non-committal as a neutral, you'll be feeling that sensation of growing expectation for Sunday. Great, isn't it?

Personally, these occasions always take me back to 1986 and the days when I was an unquestioning and impressionable 12-year-old Nigel Mansell fan. I'll never forget what he put me through during that dramatic Australian GP! And the numb realisation it was all over when that Goodyear tyre blew out at 180 mph will remain engraved in my memory forever.

So much so that as this weekend approaches, I find myself wishing I was a kid again. There's nothing like the dedication to a sporting hero that a child can give. As a grown-up (well, sort of), I still have heroes, but it's just not the same. The adulation is dulled by reality, by the other 1000-odd things I have to think about.

I'm too old, and he's too young, for Hamilton to be my hero. And, of course, given my profession in the sport, I have to remain neutral. But the point is it's not even that hard to maintain this attitude, even though I share his nationality and have watched and admired his progress through racing from his early days in karting.

The truth is I'm feeling excited, but I don't really care deep down about the outcome of the race. I just hope it's a thriller, that it realises its potential to become a great sporting moment, capping a controversial landmark season that has commonalities with 1976 and 1994.

I hope this doesn't sound too cynical, but I find it hard to understand how anyone can feel too desperate for Lewis this weekend - apart from the kids, of course.

His junior fans won't have the advantage of putting this into context, and it's wonderfully natural that this Brazilian GP should mean everything to them.

But this isn't like Mansell in '86 or Damon Hill in '94 and '96. As Lewis himself has said, he'll probably get other title chances if it doesn't work out this time. For Mansell and Hill, who'd worked for years to get themselves into this position, you feared this might be their only chance.

Lewis Hamilton © LAT

Hamilton is too grounded to take what has happened this year for granted, but I wouldn't blame him if he did. He has changed the parameters of expectation for rookie F1 drivers. The potential is clearly there for him to become an all-time great.

If he can win the title at the first attempt, it will add an important keystone to the legacy he is building. But if he doesn't, the truth is it won't be the end of the world.

Anything can happen to a racing driver in the fickle world of F1, but you'd have to say the chances are he will win more than one world championship in the future, even if this one slips through his grasp.

Whatever the outcome, the Brazilian GP promises to be a wonderful occasion, played out with great drama on a great circuit in front of an impassioned crowd. I won't be there, sadly. So I'll be joining the rest of the world's fans by tuning in to watch it on the tele (probably with a stinker of a hangover in the wake of the previous night's rugby).

Yes, I can't wait for Sunday to come. I'll savour the day as I always do when the world title has gone down to the wire.

But it'll be the kids I'll be thinking about on Sunday afternoon, those who are dedicated to Lewis, Fernando or Kimi. For them, the Brazilian GP will be a central day in their young lives.

Every corner, every lap will be a glorious torture as the drama plays out - and I can't help it, I have to admit it: of those kids, I'm just a little bit jealous.