Lewis Hamilton's dream inspired by the nightmare

The glorious irony of the Briton's last-gasp triumph in the Brazilian Grand Prix is that he snatched the drivers' crown at the same Interlagos circuit in Sao Paulo where 12 months ago he suffered the agony of losing a rookie championship by one point to Kimi Raikkonen.

That desperate disappointment came at the tailend of a campaign in which the reputation of Dennis's McLaren Mercedes team was stained by the Spygate scandal and the relationship between Hamilton and then team-mate Fernando Alonso deteriorated into a bitter feud.

Those setbacks might have inflicted lasting damage on a weaker soul. But the faith team boss Dennis showed in Hamilton when he first started backing the youngster at the age of 13 was rewarded when Britain's new sporting hero battled to the fifth place in an extraordinary grand prix that gave him the title by one point from race winner Felipe Massa.

At the age of 23 Hamilton, already the first black driver in Formula One, became the youngest world champion. Dennis said: "It doesn't matter what age you are, you learn every year that goes by. You get wiser. Lewis is not the exception to that rule.

"Lewis is just a fantastic guy. He's prepared to make the sacrifices that are essential. He has had some challenges over the last couple of years but he's dealt with them so well."

Dennis has not done badly, either. The 61-year-old was mortified when McLaren were found guilty of possessing technical secrets belonging to arch-rivals Ferrari in 2007 and an acrimonious split with Alonso at the end of that season added to his despair.

Yet the manner in which he regrouped his team and successfully set about steering Hamilton to the title in only his second season was a masterclass in man-management.

Dennis said: "We are a highly motivated group of people, we are still very true to our values. Those values have never varied. I know some people might struggle to come to terms with those words but we know what we did and what we didn't do. And we know exactly where we're going."

Dennis employs nearly 1,000 people whose principle task this year was to get two cars to the chequered flag in 18 rounds of the championship.

One of them is Dave Ryan, McLaren's veteran sporting director, who was instrumental in guiding the late Ayrton Senna and Mika Hakkinen to back-to-back championships in the 1990s. Despite those successes, Ryan came away from Interlagos insisting: "I've never experienced anything like this."

The race was simply astonishing. Following a delayed start caused by a brief rain storm, Brazil's Massa had set the samba drums beating by racing away from pole position into a lead he only lost temporarily during the rounds of pit stops.

Massa did exactly what he had to do by taking his sixth win of the season from Alonso and Raikkonen in the second Ferrari. But Hamilton's late charge was to leave him in tears.

Like the rest of the McLaren team, Ryan rode a roller-coaster of emotions as Hamilton at first looked on course for the top-five finish that would secure the title, then slipped to sixth place as rain brought extra drama to the closing stages, and finally regained fifth by passing Timo Glock's Toyota at the very last bend. Ryan said: "We had it, we lost it, then it all came back on the last corner or two. It was out of our control and when it was gone we were just gutted, we thought 'not again'.

"But Lewis is a bit special, he just did a great job. I've really enjoyed every world championship I've been part of. But this is special.

"The kid is magic. He was so special when he arrived and look at what he's done. You couldn't script this. He's going to go a long way."

He has travelled some distance already. From 35 grands prix Hamilton has claimed 13 pole positions and nine wins. And he is only the second driver to win the title in his second year, equalling the mark set by Jacques Villeneuve in 1997.

But there was no happy ending to the career of former McLaren driver David Coulthard. The 37-year-old Scot had hoped his 246th and last race would at least see him reach the chequered flag in his Red Bull.

But he got no further than the first corner where his car was touched into a spin by Nico Rosberg and then rammed by the second Williams of Kazuki Nakajima.