It all came down to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the 12th December 2021, what was to become a historic date for the sport of Formula 1. Max Verstappen, the young and flying Dutchman, raced against Lewis Hamilton, the seven time world champion in an iconic “winner takes all” race. 21 enthralling races through, 19 countries travelled to, 2142 points secured across the board; but nothing could separate these two unbelievable drivers at 369.5 points apiece. Mercedes led Red Bull by 28 points in the Constructors’ Championship, and needed to score at least 16 points between their two drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton, in order to secure their eighth consecutive title, and considerable amount of prize money that comes with it.
On Saturday, qualifying commenced at sunset at the Yas Marina track, where Lewis Hamilton was favourite to take his third consecutive pole after dominating the practice sessions. The first session of qualifying (Q1) saw Hamilton come out comfortably on top (five tenths of a second ahead of Verstappen), while the final qualifying session for Kimi Raikkonen marked the longest ever Formula 1 career came to an end. Additionally, George Russell concluded his impressive Williams career by getting out-qualified for only the second ever time by teammate Nicholas Latifi. Russell partners Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes next year.
Not too long after the start of the second qualifying session (Q2), Max Verstappen encountered a flat spot to his preferred medium tyres. A flat spot is suffered by drivers after they have locked up their brakes, forcing them to change their tyres. This change was extremely significant, given that the tyre that you use to set your fastest qualifying lap in Q2 is the tyre the top ten drivers must use at the start of the race the next day. Verstappen’s flat spot forced a change from safe medium tyres to the riskier soft ones, as it was clear that the best bet would be to start the race on medium tyres due to the longevity that they bring in comparison to the soft option. Verstappen topped the charts on the soft tyres, where he looked impressive in Q2, as Pierre Gasly surprisingly failed to qualify for Q3 for only the fourth time this year, in an otherwise excellent season where he outperformed his AlphaTauri car.
Then came Q3. Red Bull cleverly played the team game with Sergio ‘Checo’ Perez giving his teammate Verstappen a tow, a maneuver in which the car in front punches a hole in the air so the car behind benefits from a reduction in “drag”. This led to a stunning lap that Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes couldn’t match. Verstappen was almost four tenths of a second quicker than Hamilton. At certain tracks teammates take turns being the lead driver in qualifying, giving the car behind an advantage that can sometimes be worth several tenths of a second; in this case, Verstappen had priority, as he had a world championship on the line. Lando Norris qualified third to mark a brilliant season from the young Brit, out-qualifying Daniel Ricciardo, his teammate, for the 15th time of the season. Ricciardo had an underwhelming debut season at McLaren, excluding his shock win in Monza, Italy; however, there are positive signs for the Aussie next season, as he found more comfort in his car after the summer break.
So on came Sunday. In one scenario there could be a new world champion in the form of Max Verstappen, adding his name to an illustrious list of the best to ever drive a Formula 1 car. Or Sunday could be the day that Lewis Hamilton became the most decorated driver of all time, being crowned for a record eight times, clear of Micheal Schumacher and everyone else, cementing his reputation as the greatest driver of all-time.
As the sun began to set at 5pm local time, 19 drivers lined up on the grid ready to race instead of the usual 20, following Nikita Mazepin’s untimely positive Coronavirus test. All eyes were on Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen as the lights came on in Abu Dhabi, and in the famous words of TV commentator David Croft, it was “lights out and away we go!”. Hamilton had his dream start start, as he overtook Verstappen at turn one with relative ease. The only silver lining for Red Bull was that Sergio Perez was able to squeeze his way past Lando Norris to move up into third place. Then further on in the first lap, at the turn nine hairpin, Verstappen made a late lunge to make his way past Lewis Hamilton, almost making contact. Hamilton was forced wide and left the track, only to rejoin ahead of Verstappen. Verstappen and Red Bull believed that the place should be given back, as Hamilton had gained an unfair advantage by leaving the track, however, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) deemed that there would be no investigation necessary.
At lap 14 out of 58, the first of the title challengers made a pit stop, and it was second place Verstappen electing to put on fresh hard tyres. These are the most long-lasting, meaning it should be his one and only pit stop of the race, and it was a swift one. Hamilton came into the pits a lap later (also switching to hard tyres in order to cover Verstappen’s move), spending four tenths of a second longer in the pit lane than his Dutch competitor, but all in all another good stop.
At lap 20/58 Hamilton encountered the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who was leading the race as he had not pitted yet; at this point Hamilton was eight and a half seconds ahead of Verstappen. Red Bull told Perez to “hold up Lewis”, yet again showing the team games played by the men and women from Milton Keynes. Due to some stellar defense, it took Hamilton over a lap to overtake him clearly, and as a result his lead over Verstappen became a mere second. Verstappen, acknowledging his team-mate’s exceptional driving, got on his radio and said, “ah Checo is a legend!”, to which his race engineer, Gianpiero Lambiase, added, “absolute animal.”
33 laps later, and Hamilton had managed to rebuild his lead up to 12 and a half seconds, putting one hand on the World’s driver’s championship. Verstappen found himself in second, with Perez third and Carlos Sainz fourth. Lower down was Valtteri Bottas in fifth, Yuki Tsunoda in sixth, Gassy in seventh, Norris in eighth, and Fernando Alonso ninth, followed by his Alpine teammate Estaban Ocon in tenth. Then the race turned on its head when Latifi, who was in last position on track, had a large crash into the wall at turn 14, forcing a safety car to come out. As the ace was under caution conditions, the safety care swooped in to limit the speed of the cars on the track. It gives the stewards time to clear the track of debris and any other objects which reduce safety.
After the safety car came out Verstappen went into the pits to get a fresh set of soft tyres, replacing his old hard tyres. Normally, a pit stop would mean that you lose a full 20 seconds, due to the time you spend stationary and in the pit lane. However, due to the safety car, all the cars had to go slowly, meaning Verstappen was able to stop without loosing time to Hamilton. Hamilton’s 40 lap old hard tyres were incredibly inferior to the Dutchman’s new soft tyres. Michael Masi, the race director, decided on lap 56 that the cars who had been lapped should not unlap themselves. This decision made it almost impossible for Verstappen to lap the four cars in between himself and Hamilton, while also trying to overtake the reigning world champion. However, on lap 57/58 he changed his mind and decided that the cars in between first and second on track (those that had been lapped by only Hamilton) should unlap themselves, meaning that Verstappen was directly behind Hamilton. Suddenly the safety car ended, meaning there would be one lap of racing to decide the fate of the championship. It was a one lap shootout. Winner takes all.
Verstappen got past Hamilton at turn five with a late lunge, and Hamilton fought back trying to get past Verstappen. He got closer on the back straight, gaining the advantage of a slip stream, and made his final attempt to get past him at the corner where they almost touched. Hamilton was unsuccessful, and Verstappen took the chequered flag to become, for the first time, champion of the world. Toto Wolff, team principal of Mercedes, was outraged and told Masi that “this was so not right”. Lewis Hamilton said that “we’ve been manipulated”. Mercedes were outraged with Masi’s decision to have some cars unlapping themselves and changing his mind very late in the race, decisions which heavily aided Max Verstappen’s win.
However, their outrage was futile, as Verstappen won the World Drivers’ Championship. The break in the clouds for Mercedes was that they had won the Constructors’ Championship for the eighth straight time, in a season where Red Bull were favourites, due to them investing more time and money into their car. Elsewhere, Carlos Sainz picked up his fourth podium of the season to claim fifth in the World Drivers’ Championship in a hugely impressive debut season at Ferrari, who claimed third in the Constructors’ Championship over McLaren. Yuki Tsunoda finished a career best fourth to round off a solid end to the season.
The whole Hamilton family were extremely gracious in defeat, not something that would have been easy in those conditions. They made sure to congratulate Jos Verstappen, father of Max and former F1 driver, and the champion himself. Anybody who knows Lewis can be confident that he will bounce back stronger: ready to fight again, ready to put everything on the line to become champion once again.
So it was settled. Max Verstappen, champion of the world for the first time, in what was arguably the best season of Formula 1 ever. Either Hamilton or Verstappen would have been worthy winners, but it was just that little bit of luck that carried ‘Super Max’ over the line.
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