ADELAIDE, Australia -- A season of controversy and tragedy ended in an anticlimax when Michael Schumacher clinched victory in the world Formula One drivers championship without finishing the final race.


Schumacher crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday -- and with him went archrival Damon Hill.


Nigel Mansell won the race in a Williams-Renault as his team took the constructors championship for the third straight year.


Schumacher was leading on lap 36 when Hill clipped the side of his Benetton-Ford car while trying to overtake on the inside at turn six on the Adelaide street circuit.


Schumacher left the race immediately after the collision. Hill's Williams-Renault suffered structural damage in the accident and he pulled into the pits at the end of the lap. He retired when his pit crew was unable to repair a bent suspension arm.


Hill had needed to finish in front of Schumacher to overtake him for the championship.


After a few lonely seconds sitting in his car, Hill climbed out.


"People all over the world will be debating for a long time what really happened," Hill said afterward. But Frank Williams, his team boss, said there would be no protest.


Britain's tabloid newspapers were united on Monday in questioning Schumacher's victory because of the crash.


"Cheat or champion?" the Daily Mirror asked its readers. "Smash and grab," blared the Daily Mail. "Schunted Out," raged the Daily Express.


Former world motorcycling champion Barry Sheene was quoted in The Sun as saying Schumacher's actions were a deliberate and "blatant" attempt to force Hill out of the race.


Schumacher, 25, became the first German to win the world drivers championship and the youngest world champion since Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972.


"It's a dream," Schumacher said. "I can't really bring out my emotions, can't express them. I was under a lot of pressure and I just tried to take everything as it came.


"It took a while for me to believe I'd won, but then I got back to the pits and everyone was crying."


Until the crash, it had been an enthralling contest between the two championship contenders, who quickly pulled away from their pursuers.


The leaders' sudden disappearance gave Mansell his opportunity. He swooped past leader Gerhard Berger when the Austrian -- a two-time winner in Adelaide -- made a mistake on the 64th lap. The 41-year-old veteran from Britain completed 81 laps of the 3.78-kilometer track, a total of 306.018 kilometers, in one hour, 47 minutes, 51.480 seconds. He averaged 170.323 kilometers an hour. Mansell punched the air with delight after his victory and threw his driving gloves into the crowd.


Berger, a two-time winner of the race, was second by 2.511 seconds, with Martin Brundle of Britain third in a McLaren-Peugeot. Rubens Barichello of Brazil was fourth in a Jordan-Hart and only four drivers were on the same lap as Mansell at the end.


Schumacher won the drivers championship with 92 points, while Hill finished with 91 and Berger was third with 41.


Schumacher won eight races this season and had two second-place finishes, while Hill recorded six victories, five seconds and one sixth.


The new champion had been critical of Hill's skills during the season, but said he regretted being so outspoken.


"I underestimated him," Schumacher said. "He's done exceptionally well in the last two races and I apologize to him."


Mansell, a former Formula One and IndyCar Series champion, scored the 31st victory of his F-1 career after gaining his 32nd pole start.


He had started from the front of the grid in Adelaide twice before, but had not previously won the race. It was only his fourth start of the season in a grand prix. He spent most of 1994 racing IndyCars and has not yet decided on his plans for next year.


"It's not been a great year, so this is a very emotional win," Mansell said.


Hill had been bidding to emulate his late father, Graham Hill, who won the world drivers championship in both 1962 and 1968. He died in an aircraft crash in 1975.


"I gave him (Schumacher) a good run for his money. He was feeling the pressure," a disappointed Damon Hill said. "I saw the opening, thought, `I've got to go here,' but it didn't happen. That's motor racing. I have a really empty feeling."


Hill took over as No. 1 driver for the Williams-Renault team after three-time world champion Ayrton Senna was killed in a crash at the San Marino Grand Prix in May. The death of Austrian Roland Ratzenberger in practice for the same race made for a somber season and saw several rule changes in a bid to make the sport safer.


Schumacher was at the center of several controversies. He was suspended from two races for ignoring a black flag during the July 10 British Grand Prix and disqualified on a technicality after winning the Belgian Grand Prix.