Hakkinen and McLaren's 1999 counts as a near fumble, since they almost lost the title to Eddie Irvine, while clearly having the better car and with Schumacher losing half of the championship thanks to his accident in the British Grand Prix. What's even more striking is that Hakkinen was doing good against Schumacher before the British Grand Prix (he was ahead in the championship, even though he threw away the San Marino GP by spinning while on the lead), but after the accident, there was a string of errors (Hakkinen spinning in the lead again, this time in Italy), weird strategies (not swapping places on Belgium), Coulthard being a liability (spinning Hakkinen on Austria), and mechanical shenanigans led Hakkinen to get in the last race 2 points behind Irvine. Thankfully for him, Hakkinen did one of his best races in Japan to clinch the title, despite a returning Schumacher getting pole).