Verstappen wins drivers’ championship after a controversial final lap at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton on the final lap to win the drivers’ championship at the 2021 Abu Dhabi  Grand Prix.  Carlos Sainz joined the title rivals on the podium.

The late crash of Nicholas Latifi brought out the Safety Car with five laps to go. As the laps were counting down, Race Control made a late decision to let the lapped cars to overtake and restarted the race with one lap to go.

On that final lap, Verstappen on a new set of tyres overtook Hamilton to win the race and take the drivers’ championship. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team has lodged a protest against the decisions made by Race Control in the final laps.

The race at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi started as the sun was setting and the lights were taking hold with air temperatures at 25 degree C and track temperatures at 30 degree C.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C3), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C4), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C5), the softest compounds in the Pirelli tyre range.

Verstappen started on pole position with Hamilton joining him on the front row. Lando Norris was on the second row with Sergio Pérez.

Carlos Sainz and Valtteri Bottas started on the third row. Charles Leclerc, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo completed the top ten starting positions on the grid. Nikita Mazepin did not start the race as he tested positive for Covid.

Hamilton, Bottas and Tsunoda started on the medium compound tyres and the other drivers in the top ten were on the soft compound tyres.

Hamilton made a good start and led pole-sitter Verstappen into Turn 1. At Turn 6, Verstappen had the inside line and did not leave any space and Hamilton went off the track.

Hamilton rejoined in front of Verstappen and the stewards decided that Hamilton did not gain an advantage and no further action was needed. Behind them Norris ran wide and Pérez slotted into third position.

The order was Hamilton, Verstappen, Pérez, Norris, Sainz, Leclerc, Tsunoda , Bottas, Ocon, Ricciardo.

By the end of lap 3, Hamilton had built a gap of 1.5 seconds to Verstappen. Hamilton steadily extended his lead and the gap was more than five seconds by the end of lap 12.

On lap 14, Verstappen pitted for the hard compound tyres and rejoined behinds Sainz and Norris. On lap 15, Hamilton pitted and rejoined in second position behind Pérez.

The gap between Pérez and Hamilton was over ten seconds with Hamilton on his fresh tyres quickly catching Pérez. By lap 18, Verstappen had passed Sainz to take third position and was 8.4 seconds adrift of Hamilton.

Pérez had played the perfect team game in qualification and did the same in the race. When Hamilton passed him on lap 20, the Mexican put up a strong defence to retake the lead again. By the time Hamilton passed Pérez on lap 21, Verstappen was just 1.3 seconds behind Hamilton.

At the end of lap 25, the order was Hamilton, Verstappen, Bottas, Pérez, Alonso, Gasly, Sainz, Norris, Leclerc, Tsunoda , Ocon.

On lap 27, Kimi Räikkönen retired from the race with brake issues and this brought down the final curtain on the 2007 world champion’s Formula 1 career. George Russell retired on the next lap with reliability issues.

On lap 36, Antonio Giovinazzi retired from the race and the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed. Verstappen and Pérez pitted under the VSC even as Hamilton stayed out to retain track position.

The gap between Hamilton and Verstappen was 17.9 seconds with Verstappen on new hard compound tyres and Hamilton on old tyres when the VSC period ended.

By the end of lap 45, the gap between Hamilton and Verstappen was 13.9 seconds and Hamilton looked on the way to victory and the drivers’ championship.

On lap 53 of 58 laps, Nicholas Latifi crashed and the Safety Car (SC) was deployed. Verstappen pitted for the soft compound tyres and rejoined in second position. Pérez retired from the race with reliability issues.

As the cars circulated behind the Safety Car, Race Control indicated that the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen – Norris, Alonso, Ocon, Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel will not unlap themselves.

But just before the Safety Car ended with one lap to go, these cars were asked to unlap themselves. Verstappen was right behind Hamilton on new tyres and the race was reduced to a final lap duel.

Verstappen overtook Hamilton and defended stoutly to cross the finish line 2.2 seconds ahead of Hamilton. Verstappen had won the drivers’ championship for the first time and is the first Dutch driver to win the championship.

The epic struggle between Hamilton and Verstappen had ended on the final lap under controversial circumstances which will be debated for a very long time.

2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Car	Time/Retired	PTS	Laps
1	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1:30:17.345	26	58
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	+2.256s	18	58
3	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	+5.173s	15	58
4	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	+5.692s	12	58
5	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	+6.531s	10	58
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	+7.463s	8	58
7	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	+59.200s	6	58
8	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	+61.708s	4	58
9	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	+64.026s	2	58
10	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	+66.057s	1	58
11	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	+67.527s	0	58
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	+1 lap	0	57
13	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	+1 lap	0	57
14	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	+1 lap	0	57
15	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	DNF	0	55
NC	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	DNF	0	50
NC	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	DNF	0	33
NC	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	DNF	0	26
NC	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	DNF	0	25