Mark Daniels: Something to cheer about...

Who would have thought that watching Formula One in a pub could be so exciting? Yet, as a small crowd of people gathered in my Public Bar yesterday to watch the final race of the season - and the closing stages of a championship battle that has had its fair share of ups and downs - the atmosphere was electric.

Formula One has not been an overly popular sport with the average television viewer for some time now. The intricacies of its politics and bureaucracies - mixed with sex scandals, race scandals and the general perception that all you are watching is a bunch of cars driving round and round in circles - have lead to many people thinking, justifiably in some cases, that F1 is a dull spectator sport.

Indeed, in 2007 it seemed the most exciting thing was that Fernando Alonso threw his toys out of the pram because Ron Dennis wouldn't let him beat Lewis Hamilton, and in 2008 it got saucier with Max Mosley getting excited by prostitutes who checked his hair for lice.

In amongst all that you'd got results being altered long after the race had finished, draconian penalties meted out for minor offences and minor punishments for major offences, much of which lead to one website carrying a picture intimating that all the sport's stewards drove around in bright red Ferraris.

It's no wonder that you've got to be a die-hard F1 fan to understand what's actually happening, and because of that it doesn't make a great sport for trying to get people in to the pub to watch it.

But yesterday afternoon, as darkness and rain fell across Britain, people gathered in my pub to see if Lewis Hamilton could - after crashes, smashes, skirmishes and court appearances - finally become the first British Formula One World Champion since Damon Hill in 1996. Everyone held their breath as the cars teetered around the first, damp couple of corners, scared that some nefarious skulduggery might be about to take place, a mistimed tap that would just spin England's hero out of contention and let Felipe Massa, at his home Grand Prix, win the championship instead.

And then David Coulthard got nudged, taking him out of his final ever Formula One race with barely half a lap completed, and forcing the safety car out. From then on, it was simply a case for Lewis Hamilton to cling on to fifth place at least to guarantee the title but, as rain fell in the final few laps of the race, the title contenders had to pit for wet tyres. As they emerged back on the track it seemed that it had all gone wrong for Hamilton - Timo Glock, the German driver racing for Toyota, hadn't come in for wet tyres and seemed to still be able to put in good lap times. And that meant Hamilton was sixth - one place outside of the championship zone.

Massa crossed the line first to much cheering from his home crowd and the Ferrari pit lane and you could have heard the sound of a pin dropping in the pub as we watched, aghast at the thought that - once again - it had all gone wrong for the young Brit.

Until Glock slid wide on the penultimate corner, his dry tyres no longer able to keep the car on the track as the rain fell heavier, and as Massa's family wept with joy Hamilton snuck past the German's car and claimed the fifth place he needed to become the thirtieth, and youngest ever, Formula One Driver's World Champion.

With first and third places, Ferrari secured the Constructor's Trophy for the season, but as Hamilton raced in to the record books the cheer from the pub could be heard by houses across the road. It was almost as if England had won the World Cup. Almost, but not quite.

But, with Sky and Setanta having managed to wrap up all the football matches with a pricing policy too restrictive for many small pubs these days, it might be time to start looking at other sports broadcast on terrestrial TV to attract the punters in.

With the BBC taking over the broadcasting of F1 next season, slick tyres making a return in 2009, alongside smaller rear wings, a British World Champion and the prospect of Ross Brawn finally giving Jenson Button a car worthy of his talents, Formula One could well be one of those sports we need to promote next season.

Well done to Ferrari for winning the Constructor's Championship; but a big cheer for Lewis Hamilton.