DOWN TO THE FINAL ROUND: Hamilton wins bizarre, incident-packed Saudi GP & takes fastest lap to tie P2 Verstappen in points after multiple on-track contretemps; Bottas nips Ocon for P3 at checkers to edge Mercedes closer to Constructors’ title

In a crazy and sometimes over the line first-ever Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Sunday, Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton emerged victorious over his archrival, Red Bull’s superlative Max Verstappen, after both drivers once again came together on track. With tempers running as high as the temperatures at this sultry, Red Sea adjacent Jeddah Corniche Street Circuit, Hamilton kept a cooler head than the Dutch wunderkind and survived multiple Red Flag, Safety Car, and Virtual Safety Car periods, as well as a baffling collision into the rear of the Red Bull, to not only pull out a win but, by dint of also setting the race’s fastest lap, score enough points to tie Verstappen in the Drivers’ points with just one race remaining. So, with the two best drivers of this generation level on points going into the final Round 21, it will literally be all to play for in next week’s season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. But how they got to that point was due to the chaotic nature of this inaugural Saudi race and it will certainly go down as one of the most controversial Grand Prix in Formula 1 history.

After the pole-sitting Hamilton got away cleanly to start the race, with his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas doing a good job from P2 of balking any progress the P3 Verstappen might have wanted to make in the early going, the drama really started on Lap 10 when Mick Schumacher crashed out violently into the Tecpro barriers at Turn 1. While the German rookie thankfully emerged unhurt, the Safety Car was deployed and Mercedes decided to pit both their cars under the full course yellow in an ostensible bid to get a cheap tire change for their leading duo with the rest of the field running slowly. Verstappen did the opposite and stayed out, with the Red Bull team opting for track position and  the lead and perhaps hoping that they could pull some strategy later in the race. But their gamble paid off more handsomely than they could have imagined when the race director decided that the barriers needed more serious intervention and threw the Red Flag on Lap 13. Under the peculiarities of the Formula 1 rules, this now meant that Verstappen’s crew could also change his tires, only this time not just cheaply but in fact absolutely free, since all the cars were being held stationary in the pits. Hamilton complained bitterly about this decision but he has also benefitted from the same scenario in the past and that’s just the way the rules work for all competitors. When the race restarted after a loch delay and from a standing start on Lap 16, Verstappen was in the lead with equally fresh Hard Pirellis as those of Hamilton’s in P2.

But if cautions breed cautions, Red Flags also breed Red Flags. Hamilton got away well at that restart to take a precarious lead but Verstappen made a lunging move down into Turn 1 into and through the runoff area there that forced the Englishman to back out. The end result of Hamilton’s avoidance actually saw the third place car of Esteban Ocon’s Alpine also pass Hamilton, relegating the Englishman to P3. Almost immediately after that there was a huge shunt down the following straight that saw the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez taken out after contact with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and the second Haas of Nikita Mazepin crash violently into the rear of a decelerating car in front. That brought out another Red Flag to clean up the huge debris field, during which Red Bull changed Verstappen’s tires once again, interestingly to a set of the lest durable Mediums this time. After some confusion, Verstappen was also ordered to give Hamilton back P2 after being adjudged to have gained an unfair advantage during his overtaking maneuver. But Max used his anger well when the race finally started again after another long delay, passing both Hamilton and Ocon in the same sequence for the lead when things got underway again on Lap 17. With Hamilton disposing of Ocon on the subsequent lap and setting off in pursuit of Vertsappen in the lead, the real race was now well and truly on.

After a jagged stop-start period that saw five Virtual Safety Cars deployed between Lap 23 and Lap 33, things began hotting up again when Hamilton tried to make a pass on Verstappen on lap 37 of this 50-lap contest. The Dutchman once again ran off track while defending and gained an advantage. And once again, Max was ordered to give back the position to Hamilton. But apparently no one told Hamilton this small fact because, while Verstappen slowed on the final part of the course, Hamilton failed to discern the intent and smashed into the back of the Red Bull. To be fair, Verstappen also seemed to be moving around an awful lot for such a let-by — something the stewards were clearly looking at after the race — and Lewis protested vehemently that he had been brake-checked.

But fortunately Hamilton suffered only minor damage to his front wing with no noticeable loss of pace. Hamilton harassed the Red Bull and the two almost collided again as the Dutchman, desperate to keep his points lead, finally let Hamilton by only to immediately retake the point position. This time the stewards had had enough and assessed Vertsappen a five-second penalty for too many off course episodes. Combined with Verstappen’s Medium tires going off much more quickly than Hamilton’s Hards, this effectively ceded the win to the Silver Arrow. Hamilton made a pass that stuck at Turn 27 on Lap 43 and sailed into the distance, setting the fastest lap along the way. Meanwhile, Verstappen and Red Bull were unable to duck into the pits for fresh rubber and an attempt to steal back that point because Ocon and Bottas were dar too close with that time penalty factored in. So it was Hamilton coming home with his third consecutive win and the maximum twenty-six points in tis race, Verstappen in P2 and a dead heat between the two going into the last race of the season. Making matters even sweeter for Mercedes, Bottas was able to pip Ocon for P3 and the final spot on the podium at the checkers. Combined with Perez scoring zero points on the day after his DNF, that gave might Mercedes and potentially insurmountable 28-point lead over team Red Bull in the Constructors’ race.

Top 10 finishers of the inaugural Saudi Arabian GP:

Complete race results available via Formula1.com.

It all comes down to this — the twenty-first and final round of the 2021 F1 Championship is next weekend in Abu Dhabi. With emotions running high between the top two contenders and Hamilton and Verstappen desperate to outscore one another, keeping it clean has never been more important. But that’s easier said than done when these two are side by side on the track. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out and just who will wear this year’s Formula 1 crown!