Hamburg - There was a sigh of relief in Lewis Hamilton's native Great Britain on Monday amid a common agreement around the world that the sport of Formula One had never seen a more dramatic finale.

"Phew Lew," titled The Sun after Hamilton had claimed the world title over Felipe Massa in a "final lap drama" of the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday.

French paper Le Figaro named Hamilton "world champion of suspense" and Britain's Daily Telegraph said he "redefined sporting drama."

Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport spoke of "arguably the most unforgettable and moving race in Formula One history" and Britain's Daily Telegraph said it "made Manchester United's Champions League win in 1999 (2-1 in injury time over Bayern Munich) appear routine.

"Hamilton redefined our ideas of what is possible," said the Telegraph.

The McLaren-Mercedes driver Hamilton became the youngest F1 world champion at 23 years 300 days when he overtook German Timo Glock in the final lap to finish fifth. Had he remained sixth the race winner Massa would have won the title for Ferrari.

"At 23 Hamilton has changed the grand prix world. His youth is the least if it. A frontier has fallen, the last great colour bar in mainstream sport shattered by a mixed race kid from Stevenage," said the Daily Telegraph.

Italy's La Repubblica also mentioned the race aspect and compared Hamilton to African-American golf star Tiger Woods.

"Hamilton is not only the first black driver in one of the 'whitest' sports but world champion. Like Tiger Woods he showed that one well-balanced hit, a masterful passing manoeuvre, can clarify that success knows no race," La Repubblica said.

The Telegraph, along with many others in the UK, also suggested that Hamilton's world title achieved in his second season could be the start of a glorious career with possibly even Michael Schumacher's seven world titles under threat.

"Lewis Hamilton has the car and the talent to dominate Formula One for at least a decade," said the Telegraph.

The Daily Mail said that Hamilton was now "in the lap of the gods." He is the first Briton to lift the trophy since Damon Hill in 1996 and success came 50 years after Mike Hawthorn became the first British world champion in 1958.

Elsewhere, Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung named Hamilton a "deserving champion" at the end of "a turbulent year."

Hamilton had an infamous pit lane crash in Canada and was demoted from first to third place due to a penalty in Belgium. Massa, meanwhile, threw away a top result in China when he left the pits with a fuel hose attached to his car.

The International Herald Tribune referred to Hamilton's 2007 heartbreak, when he lost the title by one point to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen in Brazil, with the headline: "It took a year, but Hamilton wins."

France's Le Parisien said that "little Lewis became Hamilton The Great yesterday" and in the same country the Liberation paper recalled that Hamilton is not a unanimously popular figure in F1.

"Voila, a champion of his time: egotistic, eccentric, sometimes mean and ready to do anything to meet his goals," Liberation said. (dpa)