The 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix is an unforgettable event that gave Max Verstappen his first-ever Formula 1 world title and ended Lewis Hamilton’s reign and dream of an 8th world championship. It is also the most controversial race since the 2014 regulations were implemented in Formula 1. The 2021 season was simply the best F1 season in a decade as Mercedes were first time challenged by Red Bull and both went neck to neck in every race.
After the season, Max Verstappen became the first driver for Red Bull since Sebastian Vettel in 2013 to win a world championship, the first driver since Ayrton Senna to win the world title using a Honda-powered engine. The season was the most intense in Formula 1 history. Max and Lewis dominated the entire grid. The only other drivers who won in 2021 were Esteban Ocon, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo in Hungary, Turkey, Azerbaijan and Italy.
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Before coming to the final Abu Dhabi race, Max Verstappen won 9 races, and Lewis Hamilton won in 8. They both had 369.5 points before the race. So the title will go to the winner or highest point scorer. Verstappen was the pole finisher, so he started first ahead of Lewis Hamilton in P2. The race started and Hamilton overtook Verstappen on the first lap and went far ahead of him by each lap. The British driver led most of the race and was seen as the race and championship winner until it happened. The game-changing moment was the Williams driver Nicolas Latifi’s crash on lap 53 which brought the safety car to the track.
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Max Overtakes Hamilton and ends his reign
This brought Max Verstappen close to Lewis Hamilton with only 5 laps left in the race. He changed his tyres to Soft and came to the track with 5 lapped cars of Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, Ocon, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel between him and Hamilton. Only one lap is left in the race, and with the safety car, Hamilton will win his 8th world title. But race director Michael Masi gave a controversial call to unlap only the 5 cars between Max and Lewis then ended the VSC by starting the race.
Mercedes Team Principal was very furious and was shouting in his garage. Max Verstappen overtook Lewis Hamilton, who had old Medium tyres and couldn't fight much with that. The Red Bull driver won the world title and ended Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton's domination in the sport and they are continuing their good run till now.
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