With around ten laps to go yesterday, Christian Horner said it would require a ‘miracle’ for his Red Bull team to win the race, but that the identity of the 2021 Formula One world champion was still down to the ‘racing gods’.
The man upstairs — race director Michael Masi — would ultimately make a call that would take Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of a record eighth title away (for this year at least) and hand the trophy to first-time champion Max Verstappen.
Mercedes chose a conservative strategy so as not to risk surrendering the lead through pit-stops. Red Bull reacted by doing the opposite. They knew Lewis was faster and they needed to throw the dice. With a safety car in the dying minutes, they pitted to ensure Max was on fresh rubber. Mercedes were check-mated.
Both teams and drivers did everything right. They never gave up. They both deserved to win this year’s title but in the end, between the racing gods and some really ballsy driving, the 24-year-old Dutchman took the spoils.
There have been times I’ve found Verstappen’s wheel-to-wheel conduct unsporting. Yesterday was not one of them. After a slow getaway from pole, which allowed Hamilton to take the lead, he got his softer-compound tyres lit and he was able to brake much later into turn six. Lewis left the door open, and Max made the apex ahead of him. Crucially, Max kept within the track’s confines — something he failed to do in Brazil and Saudi Arabia. Lewis drove off the track to avoid a collision and remained in the lead.
It was a fair pass by Verstappen and Mercedes should have given the lead back, but Masi declined to investigate — much to the disbelief of the Red Bull pitwall. Horner and Verstappen have whined about being treated unfairly by the FIA this year, which has little foundation. This time, though, they had a point.
The key moment, though, came 58 laps later following that safety car. Verstappen found himself right behind Hamilton and with the advantage of new soft tyres. The pass happened into turn six again. This time it was a slam dunk.
But while there was no contesting the move, there was plenty of controversy surrounding the restart. Masi was right to trigger the safety car after Nicolas Latifi hit the barriers but there was confusion as to whether the lapped cars would unlap themselves, as is normal procedure.
At first, Masi said they couldn’t. Then he said some of them could — specifically the five between Verstappen and Hamilton — but the rest could not. We have never had such a call before. Masi was under pressure to get one more lap of racing before the chequered flag and was running out of time. Red Bull were lobbying to get the race back under way and for there to be no lapped cars between their man and his quarry. Mercedes were pleading for any scenario that would give Lewis an advantage.
Safety cars happen. Sometimes you get lucky through them, sometimes you don’t. Now he has one title, assuming he does not lose it on appeal, Max will be targeting another seven. And Lewis will be out to raise the bar further next year.
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