The Formula One world championship enters its final, decisive phase this weekend with the penultimate round in Shanghai. McLaren's Lewis Hamilton holds a five-point lead over Ferrari's Felipe Massa and 12 points over BMW's Robert Kubica with a maximum of 20 points available from the races in Shanghai and, on November 2, in Brazil.

As last year, it has been a bad-tempered end to the season, characterised by errors under pressure by Hamilton, penalties being dished out by the race stewards and by his rival drivers ganging up on him. This year they have accused him of being "overaggressive" and "arrogant" in his on-track behaviour. Last year he attracted their anger because they felt he behaved erratically behind the safety car in a rain swept Japanese Grand Prix and caused a pile-up behind him. Plus ça change.