McLaren's Lewis Hamilton became the youngest world champion in Formula One history by the skin of his teeth after a nail-biting Brazilian Grand Prix.

The 23-year-old Englishman's title rival Felipe Massa won the race in his Ferrari but Hamilton grabbed the fifth place he needed at the last corner.

A late-race rain shower looked to have cost Hamilton the title when he dropped to sixth after a stop for wet tyres.

But he passed Toyota's Timo Glock as they entered the pit straight.

Renault's Fernando Alonso, the previous youngest champion, was second ahead of Massa's team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton's success buries the ghosts of last year, when after a remarkable debut season he let slip a massive lead in the final two races and Raikkonen sneaked in to win the title.

Ultimately, there were no similar mistakes this time around - but as he entered the final lap Hamilton was not going to win the title.

He - like Massa - had stopped to change to wet tyres as the rain fell in the closing laps.

But while the Brazilian held on to his lead, Hamilton dropped to fifth place behind Glock - who stayed on dry tyres.

Hamilton then lost that position - which was the minimum he needed if Massa won - when he was passed at the start of the penultimate lap by Vettel.

Hamilton tried hard to get back past the German, but he could not get close enough to him and he would have thought he had lost the title until he came to the last two corners of the lap.

There, Glock - who had started the final lap 18 seconds ahead of Hamilton - was struggling badly on the now-slick track and the McLaren slipped passed the Toyota as it accelerated up the hill towards the finish line.

"It's pretty impossible to put into words," Hamilton said.

"I thought do I have it? Do I have it? And when they told me I