If there's one thing Lewis Hamilton can take comfort in this week, it's the fact that he's not the first World Championship contender to have a feeling that dark forces are out to derail his progress to the title.
Michael Schumacher experienced a whole host of problems in his Benetton days, Jacques Villeneuve found himself with a qualifying penalty in the penultimate race at Suzuka in 1997, and more recently Fernando Alonso was so upset with his infamous Monza blocking penalty that he threw a tantrum in Race Control.
Strange things do indeed tend to happen late in the season. Remember the two title contenders and interloper Heinz-Harald Frentzen sharing the exact same pole time at the Jerez finale in '97? Or the Malaysian Ferrari bargeboard saga of 1999, which miraculously ensured that the fight went to the last round in Suzuka?