Rollercoaster Formula 1 season set for fitting finale

He's won seven already but an eighth Formula One world title would mean more than all of them for Lewis Hamilton.

It has been a rollercoaster season for the Mercedes star, a season that at several points looked doomed to end in failure with rival Max Verstappen pushing ahead and threatening to race off into the distance.

There have been overtakes, incidents, off-track sparring and on-track collisions all leading to what looks set to be a fitting finale over the next two weekends.

The Belgian-Dutchman holds the lead in the drivers' standings as he has done for much of the year, but after back-to-back wins in Brazil and Qatar, Hamilton has roared back into contention and with just two races remaining sits just eight points behind.

The first of those comes this weekend on the sport's first trip to Saudi Arabia and a high-speed track where Hamilton is expected to hold the machinery advantage.

It has been a see-saw year - Hamilton was 19-points back at one point - and a challenge the Brit says he has relished. Indeed, should he emerge victorious from this last two-race swing he says it would be his finest achievement to date.

"I am excited. I feel different than what I felt in my first year," he said on the eve of the race weekend. "I remember the year of my first title and my second, the nervousness I had in Brazil in 2008, and then in Abu Dhabi, the double points in 2014 and not sleeping.

"There is a different calmness this year, I don't know why, I guess because I have had those experiences in the past.

"Would this be the best championship? If I get the job done, I think it will, yeah. But also, no one has ever been able to fight for an eighth, aside from Michael Schumcher. It is a new position, uncharted territory."

Things looked bleak after Verstappen himself put together back-to-back wins in the United States and Mexico a few short months ago and were bleaker still when Hamilton was disqualified from qualifying in Sao Paulo.

But a vintage performance in the race at Interlagos, spurred on by a "spicy" new engine he will again be with in Jeddah, saw Hamilton come back and seize the momentum heading into the season's final straight.

"There was a period at the beginning of the year where we just won in Bahrain and then we had a good couple of races before then really falling behind. They were three or four tenths ahead and it was like, 'shoot, we don't have a development coming', so it has been a real challenge and I love it," Hamilton added.

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"The team and I are closer than we have ever been. Everyone has lifted their game. I am proud of everything we have done. There were times when we were 35 points behind in the Constructors' Championship and at that point and at the time it feels impossible.

"But somehow we recovered and then you go to Brazil and when I got that message I was disqualified, my heart sank. I was like 'there is no matter how good I am, I am never going to recover and I am going to lose at least, I might get back to fourth or fifth from there'. But then we won the race."

If Hamilton finishes fifth or higher on Sunday, the season will advance into its final race with everything on the line. Indeed, a race victory and the fastest lap around the 6.1km street circuit for Hamilton could see the two all tied up on equal points at the top heading to Abu Dhabi next weekend.

Verstappen for his part is keeping on a typically even keel safe in the knowledge that, as we've seen already this year, plenty can happen when the lights go out.

"I'm feeling calm, I know that I will always try to do the best that I can and we'll just find out where we are going to end up," he said. "Nothing has been decided yet and we are all up for the challenge, there'€™s still a lot of racing left to do and we are going to give it our all that'™s for sure."

What has been a fiery constructors title battle between Mercedes and Red Bull on and off the track is also too close to call.

For Toto Wolff, who has warred with rival Christian Horner all season long, the "mission is clear".

"Both titles are wide open," the Mercedes chief said with a slender five-point advantage in hand. "The car has been performing well recently and is probably in the best place it has been all season, with the drivers confident to push it to the limit."

Drivers pushing to the limit with everything to play for? After an unforgettable season of so many thrills, spills, twists and turns it shouldn’t end any other way.