Seven talking points from an unbelievable Abu Dhabi GP

Hamilton lucky to keep his lead

Respect was due, and to Hamilton’s credit quickly given, for Verstappen’s wonderful qualifying lap that won him pole position on Saturday. But after flat-spotting one of his medium Pirellis, he was consigned to the red-walled softs for the start – with Hamilton nicely poised on the yellow-walled rubber beside him. And when Lewis comfortably got the drop on Max away from the lights, the advantage Red Bull’s man had gained immediately swung back towards his rival.

But this is Verstappen, and he’s never beaten. He hammered up to Hamilton, caught a perfect slipstream and lunged for the inside at turn six. This time he was perfectly in control and kept within the white lines of the race track, but crucially left Hamilton with little choice but to run wide and cut the corner. There was even a kiss of contact.

Hamilton kept his foot planted and chomped a massive chunk of the run-off to rejoin. “He has to give the place back,” called Verstappen on the team radio, as indeed the Red Bull had been ahead at the apex. But Hamilton didn’t budge – and when no investigation was deemed to be necessary, the inevitable Red Bull whine to race director Michael Masi soon followed. But for once it was justified. Hamilton apparently backed off before the end of the lap to ensure he hadn’t gained an advantage – but had he really? It didn’t look like it.

First controversy of the day, and a lucky 1-0 to the Mercedes corner. Although truth be told, even if Hamilton had surrendered his lead the inherent speed in his W12 would likely have made it near-impossible for Verstappen to stop him taking it back.

Hamilton was faster than Verstappen

This much became clear (and was hardly unexpected) as the race settled into its groove. On the medium tyres compared to Verstappen on his softs, Hamilton built a cushion and prepared to respond to whatever Red Bull threw at him. The first move came early as the Dutchman pitted on lap 13 for hard tyres, and Mercedes covered it by stopping Hamilton a lap later for a set of lightly scrubbed white-walled Pirellis. Turns out it was his final pit visit of the season and consigned him to 44 laps on that same rubber. He couldn’t have known it would be his undoing as he re-joined a comfortable five seconds up the road.

Pérez plays the team game to perfection

But Hamilton’s progress was well and truly stymied by the second Red Bull of Sergio Pérez, who played his cameo role in the finale to perfection. His team purposely left him out there to hold Hamilton up, and Checo did so with verve, skill and in an entirely legitimate manner. He and Hamilton engaged in an entertaining dogfight over the course of laps 20 and 21, with Pérez refusing to yield without descending to the level of dirty driving (despite Lewis and Toto Wolff complaining so on the radio). “Checo is a legend,” called a delighted Verstappen as he closed to around 1.3 seconds off his rival.

Goodbye, Kimi

A few laps later Kimi Räikkönen bowed out of F1 in alarming fashion when a brake problem pitched him into a high-speed spin. The subsequent contact with the barrier was relatively light and damaged a front wing endplate, leaving the Finn to trail into the pits and retirement on his 349^th and final grand prix start. Many will miss him – but he’s spent an awful lot of his latter career treading water and going nowhere fast. We’ll prefer to remember him as he was in a McLaren, much earlier in his career.

Around the same time, George Russell also lost drive in his final appearance for Williams. Now he prepares to join Hamilton at Mercedes – and so much lies all before him.

Virtual Safety Car gives Hamilton first wobble

Next, the other Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi – in his final F1 race before his switch to Formula E – gave up the ghost, the Italian parking it in an awkward spot on the exit of Turn 9. That meant a Virtual Safety Car and Hamilton’s first opportunity to pit to get rid of those aging hard tyres. Except he didn’t take it – and for good reason. The trouble with leading is that by stopping you potentially give up track position, especially if your rival responds by choosing to stay out – as Verstappen surely would. “Bit of a risk leaving me out, no?” called Lewis on the radio. Yes – but the jeopardy might well have been higher had he come in and lost his precious lead. As it was, Verstappen did stop once Lewis has passed up the chance and re-joined only 17 seconds down on the leader with plenty of time to put his new tyre advantage to work. It was still a tall order – but it was enough to make Hamilton worry.

Then Latifi comes to grief

As the race progressed, it became clear that Hamilton’s gift for preserving the life in his tyres would likely get him safely over the line and well clear of Verstappen. As Christian Horner told Sky F1 from the pit wall, Red Bull needed a massive slice of luck to bring them back into contention – and that’s exactly what the team got on lap 53 when Latifi smacked the barrier at Turn 14 after losing grip in his battle with Mick Schumacher’s Haas.

A safety car intervention was the only option – and with five to go it began to look like the season might finish under caution. But then the marshals worked quickly to clear the mess, and Michael Masi’s day unravelled. At first he made it clear lapped cars would not be allowed to pass the leader and re-join the tail of the field, presumably because it would take too long with so few laps to run down. Then after complaints from Red Bull, he audibly dithered – and changed his mind. Well, half-changed his mind. He allowed the cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to come past, but not the others still running – which meant racing could resume on the final lap.

Under the safety car, once again Mercedes might have chosen to pit Hamilton to get rid of his old tyres – but it wasn’t an option at such a late stage and with no way of knowing whether racing would resume. All Lewis could do, other than swear on the radio, was sit tight and hope. But with Red Bull again pitting Verstappen for a last throw of the dice for red-walled softs, he was a sitting duck when Masi pressed the green button. Verstappen swept into the lead on that final lap, with Hamilton powerless to respond.

The new world champion and his team openly accepted they had been lucky, as Wolff almost exploded in frustration. Hamilton dealt with his bitter disappointment with admirable good grace and maturity, which did him huge credit. Then inevitably, his team protested the result, first on a dubious claim that Verstappen had passed Hamilton under the safety car when Lewis had brought the field to a virtual crawl, and second (and more seriously) on Masi’s confusion over the lapped cars and his failure to adhere to the FIA’s own regulations. It took four hours for the protest to be thrown out and for the Red Bull celebrations to resume.

Whatever next?

Mercedes said on Sunday night that it intends to appeal the result, so it might not be over yet. Groan. It’s such a shame that one of the best seasons of F1 racing between two rivals we’ve ever seen should end in such convoluted, confusing and downright farcical circumstances. Yes, the one-lap shootout was dramatic and exciting, in front of a fully engaged global audience – but it felt like a trumped-up script for the Netflix ‘Drive to Survive’ viewers. Just how damaging this might be for F1’s credibility is hard to judge in the immediate aftermath. But whatever it was, it wasn’t good motorsport.

Verstappen deserved his title, but the same would also have been true for Hamilton. In reality this one had nothing to do with the drivers, or the teams for that matter. Instead, it’s all on the FIA – and on the biggest night for motorsport in years, the governing body blew its lines.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.