@Max33Verstappen claims victory and maiden world title in dramatic #AbuDhabiGP finale. #F1

Verstappen Abu Dhabi GP Victory – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed his maiden World Driver’s Championship and victory in a dramatic season-closing Abu Dhabi GP passing Lewis Hamilton on the final lap after a controversial safety car intervention.

 

 

The two title-rivals came together on lap one, but it was a decision to allow a last-lap dash to the flag that gave Verstappen the chance to pull a decisive overtake on Hamilton, who lead most of the Grand Prix but was unable to put under the virtual safety car and the full safety that followed Williams’ Nicholas Latifi’s crash during the closing tours.

 

When the 58 lap Abu Dhabi GP began, Hamilton had the better run off the line to immediately shoot alongside pole-sitter Verstappen from second on the grid, with the Mercedes driver capturing the lead at the opening corner braking point despite a small lock-up on his front-left.

 

Hamilton pulled clear but Verstappen remained close behind to close in slightly going down the long straight to the turns six/seven chicane, which splits the two main straights on the Yas Marina Circuit.

 

 

The Dutchman sent a late dive to the inside of Hamilton and got alongside by the apex but ran so deep to the outside of the circuit, he ran half his car on the kerbs, with Hamilton going fully off into the run-off area and cutting behind turn seven – rejoining to keep the lead.

 

On the radio, Red Bull was furious to race director Michael Masi who informed the team that the stewards reviewed the incident but decided to take no action.

 

This was because their view was that Verstappen forced the issue with Hamilton and left no room for the Mercedes driver to stay on circuit and that the leader had slowed down enough to lead the race by 1.1 seconds at the end of the opening tour to have given up any advantage, he gained by cutting the corner.

 

With Red Bull informing to the annoyed Verstappen that he would have to win the Grand Prix and championship on track, Hamilton rapidly moved clear and posted a series of fastest laps through the opening ten laps – running the more durable C4 yellow side-walled medium compounds to Verstappen’s softs.

 

The Briton’s lead reached 3.4 seconds by the end of the tenth tour – at which point Verstappen was already reporting his rear tyres were starting to slide.

 

Three laps later, with Hamilton’s gap over five seconds for the first time, Red Bull brought Verstappen in to switch the softs for the C3 white-marked hards – emerging in-between the Ferrari pairing of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who went off through the downhill turn three right in Verstappen’s wake.

 

Mercedes followed suit bringing in Hamilton a tour later for his own set of hards, which meant Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who had been nearly ten seconds off the lead by the time Hamilton came in – cycling back into the lead.

 

Hamilton ate into Perez’s gap as Verstappen took several laps to pass Sainz’s Ferrari – even going off at turn 15 as he chased the Spaniard, finally moving into third place with DRS assistance into turn six on the 18^th lap.

 

Over the next couple of tours it became clear that Red Bull’s plan for Perez was to hold up Hamilton significantly to try and get Verstappen’s near eight-second deficit lower as possible.

 

On the 20^th and 21^st lap, the front-duo engaged in a thrilling fight, with Perez pipping back ahead of Hamilton at turn six after being overtaken with DRS on the outside, then when the Briton got in-front out of the seventh corner, he used his own DRS to sling back alongside the Mercedes and through the turn eight kink and lead again into the sweeping turn nine left hairpin at the end of the long second straight.

 

Hamilton attacked at the opening corner and the door was slammed shut by Perez, but then had another shot with DRS assistance into turn six, where the Mercedes driver finally took the lead by cutting from the outside to the inside to leave the Mexican no room to go.

 

Perez stopped immediately at the end of the 21^st tour to put on his own set of harder tyres, his efforts to hold up Hamilton brought his Red Bull team-mate back to 1.7 seconds behind.

 

But Hamilton was able to charge away again from his title-rival, his lead back to 4.2 seconds by the end of the 30^th lap – although he informed his team “it’s a long way to go [to the finish] on his set of tyres”.

 

This concern became of great importance six tours later when Verstappen pitted for a second time to put on another set of hards – under a deployment of the virtual safety car when Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi who was in his last race for the Hinwil based-outfit and the Italian pulled up at the exit of turn nine.

 

Mercedes decided to retain track position and not take a cheaper pit-stop, which set up a 20-lap dash to the finish with Verstappen on much fresher rubber and needing to cutdown a 17 second gap.

 

The Dutchman immediately ate into the gap of his championship rival, but only in half second gains, which meant it still remained at 13.9 seconds with 15 tours to go.

 

Verstappen continued to close in on Hamilton, with both having to get through a pack of backmarkers as the final ten laps approached.

 

But the Dutchman still had to close a 11 second lead entering the final stages, with tensions raised by McLaren’s Lando Norris, who had fell from third at the start, dropping out of fifth with a puncture – likely picked up on the new kerbs exiting turns five and nine, which Hamilton was advised by the Mercedes team to avoid.

 

However the Grand Prix was changed dramatically when Williams Racing’s Latifi crashed exiting the left-hand turn 14 that leads out from underneath the hotel, which straddles sector three with six tours remaining – after the Canadian had been fighting Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher through turn nine and gone over the kerbs and lost the rear of his FW43B racer and slammed into the wall as he chased the German.

 

Red Bull brought in Verstappen for one final time to put a fresh set of the C5 red-branded softer compounds, with Mercedes unable to bring Hamilton in as it would have meant relinquishing the lead.

 

The incident nearly took up the entire rest of the race to clear, which initially looked like it would benefit Hamilton as the lapped cars that were in-between the front-runners – Norris, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon, Leclerc and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel – were not allowed to pass the safety car ahead of the restart.

 

But Masi reversed his call ahead of the final tour, with Hamilton backing up Verstappen significantly and then hitting the throttle rapidly to try and build a gap.

 

Hamilton lead on the last lap, but Verstappen used his fresher softer rubber to his advantage to stay close and then lunged into an overtake at the new left turn five hairpin at the start of sector two and then weaving in defence on the straight down to turn six, where it all kicked off at the beginning.

 

Hamilton chased Verstappen on the rundown to turn nine, but the latter had to defend the inside and the Hamilton had nowhere to go, sliding wide through the hairpin and ended up 2.256 seconds behind Verstappen to claimed the Abu Dhabi GP victory and his maiden World Driver’s Championship.

 

Sainz completed the top three as Perez was forced to retire in the pits during the safety car.

 

Scuderia AlphaTauri pairing Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly came home fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas, who had to recover from a poor opening start – gaining when Norris suffered his puncture.

 

Norris wound up seventh and in-front of Alpine duo Alonso and Ocon, with Leclerc rounding out the top ten.

 

Aston Martin’s Vettel and Stroll finished 11^th and 13^th respectively with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo splitting the pairing in 12^th.

 

Haas F1 Team’s Schumacher brought up the rear and a lap down from the lead.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Raikkonen was forced to retire in the final Grand Prix of his career after suffering a brakes failure.

 

***Mercedes lodged two protests with the FIA over Sunday’s controversial ending to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale over the late safety car restart. One protest follows Article 48.8 of the sporting regulations, which states “no driver may overtake another car on the track, including the safety car, until he passes the Line (see Article 5.3) for the first time after the safety car has returned to the pits.” Verstappen appeared to pull alongside Hamilton turn 12 on the penultimate tour ahead of the last-lap restart on lap 58.

 

The other protest is based on Article 48.12, which states “any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and safety car.” Race control gave the order that five-lapped cars, which were McLaren’s Lando Norris, Alpine duo Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel – to pass the safety car ahead of the restart, but McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher not being given the green light to do so.*****

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2021 Abu Dhabi GP – The Top Three

 

 

2021 World Driver’s Champion and 2021 Abu Dhabi GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16:

“It’s insane. The guys at my team, at Honda, I love them so much. Finally, a bit of luck for me. And I have to say a big thank you to Checo, he drove his heart out today.”

 

2^nd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance:

“Firstly, a big congratulations to Max and his team. I think we did an amazing job this year, we worked so hard. We gave it everything, we never gave up and that’s the most important thing.”

 

3^rd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, SF21:

“We were in the right place at the right time. I really enjoyed it. I was very strong today, from qualifying yesterday, the car felt really good. They are two great drivers, putting on a great show.”

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Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021 Race Results Classification (58 Laps)

 

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	58	1:30:17.345	26
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	58	+2.256s	18
3	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	58	+5.173s	15
4	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA	58	+5.692s	12
5	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI HONDA	58	+6.531s	10
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	58	+7.463s	8
7	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	58	+59.200s	6
8	14	Fernando Alonso	ALPINE RENAULT	58	+61.708s	4
9	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	58	+64.026s	2
10	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	58	+66.057s	1
11	5	Sebastian Vettel	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	58	+67.527s	0
12	3	Daniel Ricciardo	MCLAREN MERCEDES	57	+1 lap	0
13	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	57	+1 lap	0
14	47	Mick Schumacher	HAAS FERRARI	57	+1 lap	0
15	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA	55	DNF	0
NC	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	50	DNF	0
NC	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	33	DNF	0
NC	63	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	26	DNF	0
NC	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	25	DNF	0

* Provisional results. Note – Verstappen scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1107/abu-dhabi/race-result.html

 

Click here for the Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructors Championship Standings

 

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