Three years ago to the day, Max Verstappen won his first world title

We take a leap into the past, it is December 12, 2021, Max Verstappen won his first Formula 1 world championship title.

Throughout the 2021 season, the Dutchman and the Briton engaged in a fierce duel. With cars offering equivalent performances, they had to demonstrate increased aggression to maintain the advantage on the track, which led to several collisions and sparked an all-out war in the paddock between the two drivers. The Briton aimed to make history with an unprecedented 8th title, while the Dutchman was in pursuit of his first title.

A historic race

The atmosphere was electric at Yas Marina, where the final round of the championship was taking place. The previous week, Lewis Hamilton had snatched a hard-fought victory against Max Verstappen, following an incident on the straight. The Red Bull driver had deliberately slowed down to relinquish a position gained outside the track limits, causing contact between the two rivals. This success allowed the seven-time world champion to come back to an exact tie in the overall standings, simplifying the equation for the title: **the champion would be the one who crossed the finish line ahead of his opponent.**

Max Verstappen secured pole position with a three-tenths lead over Lewis Hamilton. However, the Brit immediately responded at the start, taking the lead at the first corner. Taking advantage of the slipstream, Max Verstappen attempted to regain the advantage a few meters later, diving to the inside and forcing the Mercedes driver off the track. Hamilton then went straight on, maintaining the lead without slowing down and even widening the gap slightly.

If Red Bull had the advantage in qualifying, Mercedes dominated in race pace, which quickly led Verstappen to realize that he wouldn’t catch up to the W12 without the help of his teammate. The Austrian team therefore extended Sergio Perez’s stint to place him ahead of Hamilton, who had already pitted, and to slow down the Briton. Mission accomplished: in a single lap, Perez, nicknamed the lieutenant, had cut down Hamilton’s lead over Verstappen.

The rest of the race turned into a frantic chase between the two title contenders, which Hamilton seemed to handle perfectly, until a dramatic turn of events hit Abu Dhabi. With less than ten laps to go, Nicholas Latifi lost control of his Williams at turn 14, crashing violently into the barriers. Race control deployed the safety car, and the prolonged intervention of the marshals suggested that the race would end with the safety car.

A decisive moment

However, Red Bull’s repeated calls to the FIA to restart the race as soon as possible seem to have influenced Michael Masi, the race director at the time. In a controversial decision, he allowed only the backmarkers between Hamilton and Verstappen to un-lap themselves, while restarting the race on the same lap. This maneuver allowed Verstappen to directly fight with Hamilton.

Verstappen, having taken advantage of the Safety Car to put on soft tires, was in an ideal position against Hamilton, who had to defend with worn hard tires. On the last lap, the Dutchman overtook Hamilton at turn 5 thanks to the superior grip of his tires and maintained the advantage in a high-tension battle until the finish line. In a breathtaking finale, Verstappen won the race and the World Championship, giving the Netherlands their first Formula 1 title.

The controversial conditions of this coronation sparked a major controversy in the paddock, with Michael Masi’s race management being sharply criticized. After a several-month investigation, the FIA acknowledged a human error and appointed two new race directors for the 2022 season.

**Three years later**, the memory of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix remains vivid: for some, it embodies a historic moment, for others, a memorable injustice.