On Sunday, Max Verstappen won the Formula One world championship in Abu Dhabi in the most dramatic way possible.
The Red Bull driver overtook championship rival Lewis Hamilton on the final lap to win the closest championship race in decades by the thinnest of margins.
Verstappen’s victory, on the other hand, has already sparked intense debate due to the circumstances surrounding it.
After 54 laps of the 58-lap race, Hamilton was about ten seconds ahead of his rival and appeared to be on his way to a record-breaking eighth championship.
Verstappen, according to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, needed a “miracle” and an intervention from the “racing gods” to win.
A safety car was deployed after Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashed at the end of the 54th lap, and Horner got his miracle.
When the safety car appeared, Verstappen took a gamble and stopped for a new set of tires. Hamilton opted to remain out despite having a slim lead.
Verstappen understood that with fresher tires, he’d be faster than Hamilton and able to overtake him and win the race if the race restarted. With only five laps remaining and a crashed car to remove off the road, the race appeared unlikely to restart. Because there is no overtaking under a safety car, Hamilton appeared to have a good chance of winning.
With a lap to go, race director Michael Masi brought in the safety car, and the race started. Verstappen sped past Hamilton to win the race and, with it, the championship.
The circumstances behind the safety car’s demise, on the other hand, were doubly contentious.
Many of the cars farther back in the field had been lapped by the frontrunners as the race neared its conclusion. Following the deployment of the safety car, the order of the cars behind Hamilton in the lead was shaken up, resulting in several cars between him and Verstappen on the circuit.
According to F1 rules, lapped cars can overtake the safety car and unlap themselves to restore the race’s original order. The race director makes the final decision.
It didn’t didn’t look like that would happen in Abu Dhabi.
Nevertheless, the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen were allowed to rapidly overtake the safety car before the start of the last lap, implying that Verstappen only needed to overtake Hamilton in the final lap to be named world champion.
With older tires, Hamilton couldn’t do much to stop the Dutchman from passing him on his way to his first world title.
Mercedes manager Toto Wolff screamed down the radio to Masi, “Michael, this isn’t right!” after the choice was made.
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