Well, it will never simply end, will it? In fact, for most of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, this seems to be exactly what will happen, because Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes-AMG have the power of the game and the world championship. Then Nicholas Latifi crashed his Williams at Turn 14 on lap 53 of 58 laps-everything fell apart. After a series of jaw-dropping events, how Max Verstappen was resurrected from the dead and won the 2021 world championship from Hamilton in the final lap... It is almost unbelievable.

Just like after the street race in Jeddah last week, we can only select from the fragments to review what happened, in order to have some views on one of our most surprising but also very dissatisfied F1 championship climaxes. pass.

On Saturday, Verstappen's excellent qualifying lap won him pole position, so respect is deserved, and Hamilton quickly won the honor. But after one of his mid-size Pirelli cars was tied, he started using red-walled soft tyres—Hamilton stood firmly on the yellow-walled rubber next to him. When Lewis easily put Max down from the light, the advantage gained by Red Bull's men immediately turned to his opponent.

But this is Verstappen, he has never been beaten. He slammed Hamilton, caught the perfect slipstream, and rushed to the inside at the sixth turn. This time he fully controlled and stayed within the white line of the track, but it was crucial that Hamilton had no choice but to run wide and cut into the corner. There is even a kiss of contact.

Hamilton stood firm and bit off a large piece of runoff to rejoin it. "He must give way," Verstappen yelled in the team radio, because Red Bull was indeed ahead of the top. But Hamilton did not give in-when it was deemed unnecessary to investigate, Red Bull inevitably complained to race director Michael Massey. But this time it makes sense. Hamilton apparently retreated before and after the lap to make sure he did not gain an advantage-but is he really? It doesn't look like it.

The first controversy of the day, and the lucky 1-0 of the Mercedes corner kick. Although to be honest, even if Hamilton gave up his lead, the inherent speed of his W12 might make it almost impossible for Verstappen to prevent him from regaining the lead.

As the game reached its peak, this became clear (and almost unsurprisingly). Compared with Verstappen, who uses soft tyres, Hamilton has built a cushion on the middle tyre and is prepared to deal with whatever the Red Bull throws at him. As the Dutch pitted for a hard tyre on lap 13, the first action appeared early and Mercedes passed Hamilton after a lap to change to a set of lightly scrubbed white Pirelli. It turns out that this was his last pit stop of the season and allowed him to run 44 laps on the same piece of rubber. When he rejoined for a comfortable five seconds, he couldn't possibly know that this would be his failure.

But Hamilton's progress was indeed hindered by Sergio Perez's second-placed Red Bull team, who played his guest role perfectly in the final. His team deliberately left him there to stop Hamilton, and Checo did it with charm, skill, and a completely legal way. He and Hamilton had an interesting scuffle on laps 20 and 21, and Perez refused to give in without dropping to the level of dirty driving (although Lewis and Toto Wolff complained so on the radio). "Checo is a legend," said the happy Verstappen when he trailed his opponent by about 1.3 seconds.

A few laps later, Kimi Räikkönen exited F1 in a surprising way, as a brake problem caused him to spin at high speeds. The subsequent contact with the obstacle was relatively light and damaged the front wing end panels, leaving the Finn behind the pit and retiring at the start of his 349th and final Grand Prix. Many people will miss him-but he spent a lot of time treading water and having nowhere to go in his later career. We would rather remember him because he was at McLaren, early in his career.

Around the same time, George Russell lost momentum in his final game for Williams. Now he is ready to join Hamilton at Mercedes-he has a lot of things to do in front of him.

Next, Antonio Giovinazzi's another Alfa Romeo (Antonio Giovinazzi) gave up the ghost in the last F1 race before he turned to Formula E, and the Italian stopped it at 9. The awkward position at the exit of the turn. This means the virtual safety car and Hamilton's first pit stop to get rid of those aging hard tires. But he did not accept it—and for good reason. The problem with leading is that by blocking you may give up your track position, especially if your opponent chooses to stay in response-Verstappen will certainly do. "It's a bit risky to exclude me, isn't it?" Called Lewis on the radio. Yes-but if he comes in and loses his precious lead, the danger may be higher. In fact, once Lewis gave up this opportunity, Verstappen stopped and rejoined only 17 seconds behind the leader, giving him enough time to take advantage of his new tires. This is still a daunting task-but it is enough to worry Hamilton.

As the race progressed, it became clear that Hamilton's talent for preserving tire life is likely to allow him to safely cross the finish line and stay away from Verstappen. As Christian Horner told Sky F1 on the wall of the pit lane, Red Bull needs a lot of luck to get them back into the competition-this is exactly what the team got on lap 53. Latifi lost his grip in the battle and hit an obstacle with Mik Schumacher’s Haas at turn 14.

The safety car intervention is the only option-there are five more races starting to look like this season may end in a cautious manner. But then the marshals quickly cleared the mess, and Michael Massey's day ended. At the beginning, he made it clear that the overlapped car was not allowed to pass the leader and rejoin the tail of the track, probably because there were too few laps and it took too long to run. Then after receiving Red Bull's complaint, he hesitated to hear-and changed his mind. Well, half of my thoughts have been changed. He allowed the car between Hamilton and Verstappen to pass, but did not allow other cars to continue driving-which meant that the race could resume on the last lap.

Under the safety car, Mercedes may once again choose to let Hamilton replace the old tires-but at such a late stage, this is not an option, and it is not known whether the race will resume. All Lewis can do, except swear on the radio, is to sit and wait for death, hopeful. But as Red Bull once again asked Verstappen to throw the dice for the Red Wall software one last time, when Marcy pressed the green button, he was a sitting duck. Verstappen took the lead on the final lap and Hamilton was unable to respond.

The new world champion and his team publicly admitted that they were lucky because Wolf broke out almost in frustration. Hamilton responded to his painful disappointment with admirable elegance and maturity, which brought him great honor. Then inevitably, his team protested the results. First, it was a suspicious claim that Verstappen had already overtaken Hamilton under the safety car when Lewis brought the venue into a virtual crawl, and secondly (more serious Yes) Massi is confused about the overlapping cars and his car. Failure to comply with FIA's own regulations. The protest was dismissed and the Red Bull celebrations restarted and it took four hours.

Mercedes said on Sunday night that it intends to appeal the results, so it may not be over yet. moan. Regrettably, one of the best F1 seasons we have ever seen between two competitors ended in such a puzzling, confusing and downright comical situation. Yes, in front of a whole-hearted global audience, the single-lap shootout is dramatic and exciting-but for Netflix's "Drive to Survive" audience, it feels like a fabricated script. How much damage this might cause to F1's credibility is difficult to judge immediately. But in any case, this is not a good motorsport.

Verstappen deserves his title, but so is Hamilton. In fact, this has nothing to do with the driver or the team. On the contrary, it’s all in the FIA—on the biggest night of motorsport in years, the governing body boasted its lines.

Image courtesy of Motorsport Images.

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