Lando Norris may be in the best position as the championship leader but, if history tells us anything, it’s that having a points advantage on the final day doesn’t always mean much.

In fact, the last five title-deciders including three or more candidates for the crown have ended with the driver leading the championship at the start of the day being knocked off their perch. Here’s what happened on those five fateful days:

2010 Abu Dhabi GP

Standings before the race

1. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 246pts
2. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 238pts
3. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 231pts
4. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 222pts

Final standings

1. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull, 256pts
2. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari, 252pts
3. Mark Webber, Red Bull, 242pts
4. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 240pts

Those who have followed F1 for a long time may remember Vitaly Petrov. Fernando Alonso certainly does, and the Russian racer certainly isn’t on his Christmas card list. Alonso started third and was still on course to become a three-time world champion despite losing a place to Jenson Button early on.

Mark Webber pitted early and Ferrari brought Alonso in to respond, but he emerged on track behind Petrov’s Renault and couldn’t get by in a time before DRS. He eventually finished seventh while Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel won both the race and the crown.

2007 Brazilian GP

Standings before the race

1. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 107pts
2. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 103pts
3. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 100pts

Final standings

1. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari, 110pts
2. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren, 109pts
3. Fernando Alonso, McLaren, 109pts

In Lewis Hamilton’s debut F1 season, he found himself at the top of the standings and on course to become world champion as a rookie. The chief threat was Alonso in the other McLaren, who was desperate to stop his upstart team-mate from winning at the end of a year of ugly feuding that threatened to tear the team apart.

A gearbox issue dropped Hamilton well down the order and recovered to seventh, enough to get the better of Alonso, who had won fewer races. But not to stop Kimi Raikkonen who won the race from team-mate Felipe Massa, snatching the title by the narrowest of margins.

1986 Australian GP

Standings before the race

1. Nigel Mansell, Williams, 70pts
2. Alain Prost, McLaren, 64pts
3. Nelson Piquet, Williams, 63pts

Final standings

1. Alain Prost, McLaren, 72pts
2. Nigel Mansell, Williams, 70pts
3. Nelson Piquet, Williams, 69pts

Back when only a drivers’ 11 best results in a season contributed to the championship, Nigel Mansell needed to finish at least second to see off team-mate Nelson Piquet and Alain Prost in the McLaren. He was running third with less than 20 laps to go when his rear-left tyre fell apart, prompting Murray Walker’s famous line of commentary: “And colossally that’s Mansell!”

That was the end of his race and Williams, keen to avoid Piquet suffering the same fate, pitted him for fresh rubber. McLaren risked it and Prost held on to win the second of his four titles.

1983 South African GP

Standings before the race

1. Alain Prost, Renault, 57pts
2. Nelson Piquet, Brabham, 55pts
3. Rene Arnoux, Ferrari, 49pts

Final standings

1. Nelson Piquet, Brabham, 59pts
2. Alain Prost, Renault, 57pts
3. Rene Arnoux, Ferrari, 49pts

Three years earlier, Prost had been fighting for his first crown but Piquet was a very close threat heading to Kyalami, north of Johannesburg. And it quickly became clear that the Brazilian was going to get the better of him. He sped off into the distance early on and was miles ahead when Prost’s turbo failed.

Piquet only needed to finish fourth after that and so he slowed, not taking any risks to cruise to third place and the title. Rene Arnoux had also been mathematically in the fight before the race but both he and Ferrari team-mate Patrick Tambay did not finish.

1981 Caesars Palace GP

Standings before the race

1. Carlos Reutemann, Williams, 49pts
2. Nelson Piquet, Brabham, 48pts
3. Jacques Laffite, Ligier, 43pts

Final standings

1. Nelson Piquet, Brabham, 50pts
2. Carlos Reutemann, Williams, 49pts
3. Alan Jones, Williams, 46pts
4. Jacques Laffite, Ligier, 44pts

F1’s first attempt at a race in Las Vegas took place in the car park of the Caesar’s Palace hotel and pretty much everyone hated it. Carlos Reutemann especially, as the Argentine qualified on pole but slipped to fifth by the end of the first lap and eighth by the time he took the chequered flag.

Piquet was obviously exhausted in the hot conditions but somehow held on to fifth place to secure the two points he needed to be crowned world champion for the first time. Jaques Laffite had needed to finish at least second to close the gap to Reutemann but managed only sixth.