Title chase goes down to the wire after dramatic Saudi Arabian GP

Mercedes’ driver Lewis Hamilton won the first ever Saudi Arabian Grand Prix to get level on points with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen going into the final race of the season.

It was expected to be a tight battle between the two protagonists, but even for those who were looking forward to the action, there was an overwhelming feeling by what had just transpired during the race that had multiple incidents generate talking points.

Hamilton managed to secure pole on Saturday when Verstappen, who had one final chance to wrestle the initiative of starting on pole, crashed at the penultimate corner despite lighting up the timing sheets.

The Dutchman’s time was on course to pip Hamilton to pole but for the error when he locked up his front left and failed to make the final left-hand turn of the circuit with the most corners in Formula One.

He was left to rue that mistake as Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton’s teammate, had managed to better his previous time by just 0.031 of a second, giving Mercedes a front-row lockout, the first since Mexico and the fourth of the season.

The Jeddah Corniche Circuit, the fastest street circuit in Formula One, claimed its first casualty on the 10th lap when Haas’ Mick Schumacher spun and crashed.

The Safety Car came into play, prompting Mercedes to bring in both their cars for the hard tyres that could last till the end of the race.

It would only cost them one position in the process and they would have a tyre advantage over Verstappen, who inherited the lead. 

The Race Director, Michael Masi, then had a change of mind and red flagged the race when he and his team deemed that the preventive barrier needed nursing that could only be provided under red flag conditions.

The question of whether the red flag was absolutely necessary was contentious. Hamilton is level on seven championships apiece with Mick’s father, Michael.

The restart saw Hamilton get a better launch than Verstappen and was well ahead getting into Turn One.

Verstappen’s massive effort to block Hamilton ‘gave a through pass’ to Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who had a better exit out of Turn Two such that he managed to pass Hamilton as the Brit braked to avoid hitting Verstappen.

The Dutchman then had an easy pass on Ocon on the approach to Turn Four.

Behind the three men, mayhem ensued as first, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, squeezed to the left by the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, took out the Mexican. Perez spun and hit the barriers.

This led to another crash as Haas’ Nikita Mazepin crashed into the back of William’s George Russell who was slowing down to delicately navigate through the stricken cars and debris. A second red flag came into effect.

One would have thought that the next restart would be from the pit lane to prevent another accident but the Race Director still opted for the standing start.

The cars got lined up again on the grid, with Ocon first, Hamilton then Verstappen.

Medium compound

The Red Bull driver was penalized for the aggressive move on Hamilton that gained him an unfair advantage.

Red Bull opted to put the medium compound on Verstappen’s car, while Mercedes opted to stay on the hards.

The restart this time saw Verstappen dive to the inside of Turn One, squeezing Hamilton between himself and Ocon. There was contact between the Mercedes and the Alpine.

With fresh mediums, Verstappen was now in the lead in a sweet change of fortunes for Red Bull.

Ocon stayed ahead of Hamilton, but not for long as the Brit swept past even before the DRS aid had been enabled.

Verstappen was fast on the mediums but not fast enough to put daylight between him and Hamilton.

 A number of Virtual Safety Cars came into effect as Hamilton was looking for the opportunity to overtake the race leader.

That chance came on Lap 36 when he made the move to pass Verstappen on the outside of the approach to Turn One.

As is now characteristic of Verstappen, he braked extremely late in an effort to defend and in the process, was unable to make Turn Two using the runoff area instead. Hamilton, anticipating such could happen, braked and made the turn, ceding the position.

This prompted Verstappen to be ordered to give back the position to Hamilton. That message might not have filtered to Hamilton on time as Verstappen seemed to slow down towards the middle of the track at a spot where Hamilton expected him to be flat out.

Hamilton braked too but was too late to avoid hitting Verstappen in the rear. The Dutchman then sped off from the scene.

Behind the scenes, there was back and forth on whether Verstappen should still give the position to Hamilton after that collision.

When he eventually did, it was at a tantalizing spot where he knew he could reclaim the position first by diving into a turn and then using the benefit of DRS to open the gap between him and Hamilton (even though he was the one ahead).

Verstappen defended aggressively yet again, and like in Brazil, overly defended to the extent that he went off the track.

The Stewards, this time had witnessed one infringement too many, and they penalized Verstappen with a five-second penalty.

Hamilton continued the chase and passed Verstappen on Lap 43 on the approach to the last corner. This time, he made it stick by leaving little room for Verstappen, whose tyre performance was more rapidly deteriorating, to defend.

The damaged front wing did not prevent Hamilton from setting fastest laps to earn a crucial extra point heading to Abu Dhabi.

His margin of victory was 10 seconds. Verstappen would subsequently be handed a 10-second penalty by the Stewards for being deemed to have brake-tested Hamilton and caused a collision when he was ordered to give a position back to the Brit.

The lightness of the sanction was another questionable decision by the Stewards given the potential severity of the accident that would have been had it not been for Hamilton’s cat-like reactions.

Bottas, meanwhile, managed to recover and just pipped Ocon to the line to claim the final podium position.

Although level on points at 369.5, Verstappen, whose driving during this race has become a thorny issue, still leads the Championship by virtue of having more wins (nine) than Hamilton (eight).

There is little doubt that the showdown in Abu Dhabi this Sunday will be the most watched F1 race in history. You can take that to the bank.

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