MPH: Mark Hughes on...

We had a world title showdown go to the wire - and that's what counts, I guess. Lewis Hamilton had a seven-point lead over Felipe Massa with ten to play for at Interlagos, and he clinched it at the last corner of the last lap.

But actually, if we just look back at the merits of each of their seasons, look at when each was denied through no fault of his own, there would have been no title showdown; Massa would have clinched it long ago.

By my reckoning, if we eliminate random luck - good or bad - from the seasons of both drivers, Massa would have gone into the final round a whopping 24 points clear.

Hamilton has to count himself extremely fortunate that he was in a position to win this title at all. By rights, he shouldn't be anywhere near it.

Let's look first at Monaco, where Hamilton crashed into the Tabac exit wall in the race's early laps. He got away with a damaged wheel rim from an error that could, normally would, have put him out there and then.

But let's allow him the luck that got him back to the pits, car undamaged. He lost over half a minute with his unscheduled stop, some of which would normally have been clawed back, thanks to the more favourable strategy McLaren was able to then put him on.

Under normal circumstances that still wouldn't have got him anywhere near the points. Instead, what happened was the crashed cars of Fernando Alonso and David Coulthard triggered a safety car that ensured Hamilton's error had inadvertently made him the only guy on the right strategy!

He'd been rewarded with ten points for making a mistake! Sure, he drove a brilliant race to victory that day but if you take luck out of it, he'd have non-scored - and Massa would have been second (to Robert Kubica) instead of third. So subtract ten points from Hamilton's pre-Brazil total, add two to Massa's. That gives Massa 89 and Hamilton 84.

Next, Canada. Hamilton's error in the pit lane was his own and even though he'd again performed brilliantly, there was no bad luck involved in his non-finish.

Massa, on the other hand, was denied a probable second place finish (again behind Kubica) because at his second pit stop there was a problem with his fuel rig; no fuel went in and he had to complete another lap before returning. This ultimately dropped him to fifth. So add four to Massa's total: Massa 93, Hamilton 84.

Hungary. Massa's cruel retirement three laps short of a brilliant victory was down to faulty material in a con-rod. Absolutely nothing he could have done about it, not his error. Hamilton, a few seconds behind, was the lucky beneficiary. Add ten points to Massa, subtract two from Hamilton: Massa 103, Hamilton 82.

Belgium. Massa wasn't even in the same race here as Hamilton, who took a brilliant victory with a great and totally legitimate pass on Kimi Raikkonen.

The stewards decided otherwise and demoted Hamilton behind two cars that hadn't even seen him since the start of the race. In no way were the races of Massa and Nick Heidfeld inconvenienced by Hamilton's move on Raikkonen. Ignore the nanny state stewards and add four points for Hamilton, deduct two from Massa: Massa 101, Hamilton 86.

To Singapore and the random accident of Nelson Piquet triggering the safety car at exactly the wrong time for Massa, who'd hitherto been on his way to a dominant victory. Instead he became embroiled in a pit crew error that left him out of the points. Hamilton had looked on his way to third behind the two Ferraris before the safety car, and ended up taking third. Add ten points to Massa's tally: Massa 111, Hamilton 86.

Japan, and the inexplicable decision of the stewards to penalise Sebastien Bourdais for having Massa crash into him, which moved Massa up to seventh. Subtract one point from Massa: Massa 110, Hamilton 86.

It's not even close, is it? Massa was appallingly served by Lady Luck this year, Hamilton was treated very kindly by her. Does that make Massa the moral champion regardless of Sunday's outcome? Within the constraints of the drivers not all being in equal cars, yes it surely does.

As an average, over the season, Ferrari delivered the fastest car and Massa made fewer errors than Hamilton, produced some quite superb performances and only two or three bad ones. That doesn't make him necessarily the best driver but it certainly makes him way better than I and most others gave him credit for coming into this season.

He's improved later into his F1 career than perhaps any driver of recent memory, and if in time 2008 comes to represent his best season, it is a pity that it wasn't rubber stamped by the status of a world crown.