2021 F1 STANDINGS DRIVER
In the middle of all this, Carlos Sainz drove a legendary drive to come P3 at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, escalating him to 5th in the driver standings in his debut season with Ferrari ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc (P7), becoming the best of the rest. He will now race with the number 1 for the 2022 season. It was a maiden victory for Max Verstappen, popularly hailed as Super Max by fans, the first Dutch world champion and the fourth driver ever to do it under the age of 25. He also clinched the record of most pole positions in a season for Honda equalling Ayrton Senna’s (10). The reigning world champion also broke the record of most podiums in a single season, 18, without touching the 3rd step once. Lewis Hamilton congratulating Max Verstappen after a dramatic finale. Hamilton’s evasive action couldn't contain Max as he made the move stick and overtook his rival to win the race and the title, denying Lewis his eighth world championship, a record which would have put him ahead of Michael Schumacher. He outsmarted his rival by putting up a stellar fight on the last lap.
Max, with his much gripper, brand new set of softs on the last lap, had a massive advantage against Lewis on 44 lap old hards.
In the end, with one and a half laps to go, Michael Masi instructed for only the 5 backmarkers in between Lewis and Max to unlap themselves under the SC, and soon enough, with the field slowed down to SC pace, Max was breathing under Lewis’ neck. Red Bull pitted Max for softs and he had nothing to lose as he came out in P2 but he had 5 backmarkers on the way between him and Lewis which would cost him time to overtake. However, a second safety car that was deployed on lap 54 when Nicholas Latifi’s Williams crashed into the barriers, changed the entire course of the title decider. He set incredible lap times, gave his absolute best, not making a single mistake. The seven-time world champion was un dithered even under immense pressure as he chased Max on brand new tyres after he pitted during the VSC upon Antonio Giovinazzi’s retirement.
Red Bull took advantage of this and put Max on a two-stop strategy. The gap between them went from 8.4s to 1.2s in the space of a single lap. When Lewis did get past Checo, Max was close enough that Mercedes could not afford to pit Lewis during the subsequent Virtual Safety Car and Safety Car sessions without dropping him behind his championship rival. He didn’t score a point but he did make a point, that he is truly deserving of that Red Bull seat. The Mexican driver ended the race with a DNF due to engine issues, missing a well-deserved podium. “ Checo is a legend”, said the Dutchman on the team radio, paying credit to his teammate. Red Bull swiftly decided to bring Max in for hards on lap 13, with Mercedes pitting Lewis a lap later.Ĭheco got in the way of Hamilton after his pitstop and defended him like an absolute legend, on older soft tyres, significantly reducing his advantage over Max. A Staggering CliMAX to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Hamilton, with his back-to-back fastest laps, kept pulling away from Verstappen, enabling him to maintain a comfortable lead in 51 out of 58 laps.Īt this point, the championship seemed to have gone out of Verstappen’s hands, until a crash gave him one final chance. Max tried to overtake Lewis but the British driver went off the track and kept his lead, which surprisingly attracted no penalty. The frontrunners started the race on different tyre compounds- Max Verstappen on softs and Lewis Hamilton on mediums.Īlthough the Red Bull star started on pole, the 7-time world champion who starting second, was quick to catch up as he got past the former at the very start.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a 19 driver race as Haas’ Nikita Mazepin was ruled out after testing positive for Covid-19. It was the most important race of the 2021 F1 season as the two championship rivals, Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, entered the title decider level on points, which has only happened once before in F1 history, back in 1974. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix held at the Yas Marina Circuit on December 12, 2021, marked the end of the most extraordinary F1 season.
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