2021 Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

2021 Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.jpg

Who will win the 2021 World Championship?

  • Max Verstappen

    Votes: 1,428 62.8%

  • Lewis Hamilton

    Votes: 845 37.2%
  • Total voters
    2,273
  • Poll closed .
Formula 1 enters the season finale of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with the driver’s championship leaders tied on points.

After a roller coaster ride of a season in F1, the final event of 2021 will be held in Abu Dhabi and will decide the championship battle between Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton. The two drivers are even on points entering the race.

Verstappen has won more races this year than Hamilton, so if the two end up finishing even after this race due to neither scoring points, the championship would go to Verstappen. Momentum seems to be with Hamilton after back-to-back-to-back race wins in Brazil, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, though points momentum has never lasted long this season.

The Yas Marina circuit is a location where both drivers have won in the past, with Hamilton having won numerous times at the track, and Verstappen being the most recent winner. The layout has been altered for 2021 to encourage more overtaking.

Looking away from the feature act of this race weekend, the constructor’s battle between Mercedes and Red Bull seems to be all but decided, with Mercedes holding a 28-point advantage. With Hamilton and Verstappen cancelling each other out on points, Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas have been involved in a lower profile battle than their teammates, but one full of surprises just the same.

This will also be the last time we see certain drivers in F1, or the last time we see them with their current teams. Perhaps the biggest departure is Kimi Räikkönen, who will retire from driving after Abu Dhabi. Kimi’s teammate, Antonio Giovinazzi, will also vacate his F1 seat after this season and will race in Formula E next year instead. One of the Alfa Romeo team seats will be filled by Bottas, who will finish this year third in the driver’s standings. His current seat at Mercedes will be filled by George Russell.

This looks to be an exciting finish to a season filled with drama and shocking moments. Let’s hope that we see the best from each of the championship contenders this weekend.

Qualification Results​

1Max VERSTAPPENRed Bull1:22.109
2Lewis HAMILTONMercedes1:22.480
3Lando NORRISMcLaren1:22.931
4Sergio PÉREZRed Bull1:22.947
5Carlos SAINZFerrari1:22.992
6Valtteri BOTTASMercedes1:23.036
7Charles LECLERCFerrari1:23.122
8Yuki TSUNODAAlpha Tauri1:23.220
9Esteban OCONAlpine1:23.389
10Daniel RICCIARDOMcLaren1:23.409
11Fernando ALONSOAlpine1:23.460
12Pierre GASLYAlpha Tauri1:24.043
13Lance STROLLAston Martin1:24.066
14Antonio GIOVINAZZIAlfa Romeo1:24.251
15Sebastian VETTELAston Martin1:24.305
16Nicholas LATIFIWilliams1:24.338
17George RUSSELLWilliams1:24.423
18Kimi RÄIKKÖNENAlfa Romeo1:24.779
19Mick SCHUMACHERHaas1:24.906
20Nikita MAZEPINHaas1:25.685

Race Results​

1Max VERSTAPPENRed BullLAP 58
2Lewis HAMILTONMercedes2.256
3Carlos SAINZFerrari5.173
4Yuki TSUNODAAlpha Tauri5.692
5Pierre GASLYAlpha Tauri6.531
6Valtteri BOTTASMercedes7.463
7Lando NORRISMcLaren59.2
8Fernando ALONSOAlpine61.708
9Esteban OCONAlpine64.026
10Charles LECLERCFerrari66.057
11Sebastian VETTELAston Martin67.527
12Daniel RICCIARDOMcLaren+1L
13Lance STROLLAston Martin+1L
14Mick SCHUMACHERHaas+1L
15Sergio PÉREZRed BullDNF
16Nicholas LATIFIWilliamsDNF
17Antonio GIOVINAZZIAlfa RomeoDNF
18George RUSSELLWilliamsDNF
19Kimi RÄIKKÖNENAlfa RomeoDNF

What are your thoughts on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix? Let us know on Twitter at @RaceDepartment or in the comments section below!

Photo credits: Red Bull Content Pool
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About author
Mike Smith
Mike Smith
I have been obsessed with sim racing and racing games since the 1980's. My first taste of live auto racing was in 1988, and I couldn't get enough ever since. Lead writer for RaceDepartment, and owner of SimRacing604 and its YouTube channel. Favourite sims include Assetto Corsa Competizione, Assetto Corsa, rFactor 2, Automobilista 2, DiRT Rally 2 - On Twitter as @simracing604

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Comments

Damage Inc
Enthilzha said:
Ok, but asking you honestly and ignoring the particular situation on Sunday; do you think it is healthy for a sport to have it's rules and regulations but choose to ignore those at any moment (even though the competitors are competing to those rules) simply to engineer artificial excitement at the expense of fair competition?

For example: would football ultimately benefit if at the World Cup Final, Brazil are winning 5-0 with one minute to go against Argentina, and FIFA steps in and says 'next goal wins' and hands Argentina a penalty, simply because it is more exciting that way?
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That's not a reasonable comparison, Masi didn't engineer the event that removed Lewis "5-0" advantage.
 
Damage Inc
Enthilzha said:
I fully understand both sports and the situation is comparable. We are simply talking about a circumstance in which one participant/team is dominating and clearly going to win but the outcome is manipulated at the end to contrive an exciting finish.

I actually used tennis as an example before and likened it to being 6-0,6-0,5-0 and 40-0 up (in the final of Wimbledon) and the umpire suddenly saying "next point wins" and taking your racket away.
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No it is not. Stop focusing on the Masi decision, what took Lewis advantage away was the Latifi crash.
 
Damage Inc
Enthilzha said:
It is comparable - we know that Hamilton did finish the race and would have finished in first had the established rules been adhered to. The fact that they weren't adhered to is what ultimately changed the result.

I, of course understand that something unlike other sports might happen such as a breakdown or crashing out on the final corner and that is, of course, perfectly okay even if it were to happen to someone leading the race by 10 laps. I remember Mansell's tyre exploding in Australia when he seemed a cert for the championship as a good example of this.

Anyway, the latter circumstance is very different to rules and precedents being changed in a single moment as happened here.
Click to expand...
Once again NO, what "ultimately changhed the result" was the Latifi crash. In most scenarios of a race restart Lewis would lose. He would ONLY win if it stayed behind the SC or a red flag full restart.
 
muzikant
swinny said:
Give it a rest with the insults,getting a little boring.
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where do i offend someone i only mention facts like the xmas show skysport. don't expect respect but that's something else. i will stop i enjoy the championship don't worry
 
Damage Inc
Enthilzha said:
What Mercedes knew when the safety car was deployed was that the rules and all existing precedents indicated that all or no cars would be unlapped and that the safety car would be pulled in the following lap. They cannot possibly have known that the stewards would take the unpredented decision to change the rules on the spot, allow only some cars through and pull the Safety car in immediately.
Click to expand...
But they KNEW that if thh crash was cleared quickly enough (and it may have been) for ALL the lapped cars to get through Lewis was screwed.
 
Damage Inc
LeSunTzu said:
So as a spectator a last lap battle made you happy. As a spectator an uneven last lap battle made me unhappy.
Anyways if race direction make decisions to please spectators, then it's no longer a race but a show.

Btw Verstappen and RedBull didn't mind a whole "race" under yellow this year :D
Click to expand...
If you want to talk about uneven...cough ENTIRE HYBRID ERA up to 2020 cough.
 
P
Damage Inc said:
No it is not. Stop focusing on the Masi decision, what took Lewis advantage away was the Latifi crash.
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Or Lewis staying out and not changing tires like Max did? If Lewis had been on newer softs as well, Max would never have overtaken him, because Lewis was the faster driver last race. But similar to Norris a few races back, it takes guts to come in for new tires when you are leading the race.
 
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T
It's funny how this discussion is still going on with some people so focused on Masi applying the rules to have a last lap showdown that they completely forget the big picture. It reads as if Masi made a gift for Max wich clearly isn't the case. The desicion was made on track in the last lap. It's clear that they need to tweak a few rules and the wording of them a bit in the future, but at the end the sporting regulations were in place due to teams agreeing to them. And suprise, surprise, even Mercedes agreed to them. And in the sense of the sport means, that there should be racing whenever possible. That they finished the last lap perfectly fine shows that there weren't any safety issues at this point and that's the whole point of the SC. It could have been well possible that Lewis finished ahead of Max under green and all Hamilton fans would tell everyone how great Lewis is to overcome the odds. :p

There are a few very nice analyzing articles about the whole race and how different factors influenced the outcome. This race was the result of many factors, not just the SC. Perez played an important role as he cut down the pit stop window of Lewis considerably. And this lead to Mercedes playing it too safe and not changing the tyres under VSC simply focusing on track position. On another note, I think Max did quite a ballsy move in the last lap that not just surprised the commentators and spectators, when he launched from so far back that even Lewis Hamilton had no answer for it. Why didn't he cover the inside after what happened in Lap 1? With that experience you would expect a 7 time world champion to put up a better defense. Checo showed how to do it on old tires.
 
D

  • Deleted member 379375

tr1v1um said:
It's funny how this discussion is still going on with some people so focused on Masi applying the rules to have a last lap showdown that they completely forget the big picture. It reads as if Masi made a gift for Max wich clearly isn't the case. The desicion was made on track in the last lap. It's clear that they need to tweak a few rules and the wording of them a bit in the future, but at the end the sporting regulations were in place due to teams agreeing to them. And suprise, surprise, even Mercedes agreed to them. And in the sense of the sport means, that there should be racing whenever possible. That they finished the last lap perfectly fine shows that there weren't any safety issues at this point and that's the whole point of the SC. It could have been well possible that Lewis finished ahead of Max under green and all Hamilton fans would tell everyone how great Lewis is to overcome the odds. :p

There are a few very nice analyzing articles about the whole race and how different factors influenced the outcome. This race was the result of many factors, not just the SC. Perez played an important role as he cut down the pit stop window of Lewis considerably. And this lead to Mercedes playing it too safe and not changing the tyres under VSC simply focusing on track position. On another note, I think Max did quite a ballsy move in the last lap that not just surprised the commentators and spectators, when he launched from so far back that even Lewis Hamilton had no answer for it. Why didn't he cover the inside after what happened in Lap 1? With that experience you would expect a 7 time world champion to put up a better defense. Checo showed how to do it on old tires.
Click to expand...
I thought Masi applying the rules to have a last lap showdown was the big picture, everything else is irrelevant despite the number of times it's repeated. Simply put ,Lewis has command of the race from start to finish until the rules were applied in a way so as to influence the outcome. I don't care who it's done to, it was wrong. If the race would have finished behind the safety car, so be it, it has in the past and no fudge was applied then.
 
Damage Inc
pcraenme said:
Or Lewis staying out and not changing tires like Max did? If Lewis had been on newer softs as well, Max would never have overtaken him, because Lewis was the faster driver last race. But similar to Norris a few races back, it takes guts to come in for new tires when you are leading the race.
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True but I don't think many teams would sacrifice track position. I'm not 100% sure but I think Lewis already passed the pit entrance when SC came out? So to get softs he would have been in the next lap so behind Max. Not 100% sure on that though.
 
Damage Inc
winston malcolm said:
I thought Masi applying the rules to have a last lap showdown was the big picture, everything else is irrelevant despite the number of times it's repeated. Simply put ,Lewis has command of the race from start to finish until the rules were applied in a way so as to influence the outcome. I don't care who it's done to, it was wrong. If the race would have finished behind the safety car, so be it, it has in the past and no fudge was applied then.
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Lewis was not in command as soon as the SC car came out for Latifi and Max pitted for softs. NO-ONE could have predicted exactly how long it took for Latifi's crash to be cleared. Masi (it seems from some analyisis) had a chance to release ALL lapped cars and have the last lap, situation unchanged, would you be happier? What we got was 95% ok IMO with 5% of rule bending to get the last lap in.
 
Colt459
Damage Inc said:
True but I don't think many teams would sacrifice track position. I'm not 100% sure but I think Lewis already passed the pit entrance when SC came out? So to get softs he would have been in the next lap so behind Max. Not 100% sure on that though.
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No he was a few turns away from the pit entrance when SC was announced. He even drove past Latifi crash so he saw it. He said something “s**t man I can’t box, this is unbelievable” but not “can’t box” in the literal sense, just that track position was priority
 
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BrainsBush
For those who love Mercedes and traditions there is some unfortunate news: Mercedes will not be present at the annual FIA team photo moment. Sorry!

Curious if knight Lewis will appear tomorrow? He has to come but as we all know the most constant is the change.
 
LeSunTzu
Actually no, this is the end of the story, according to FIA:
1. You guys (drivers, teams, fans) just misunderstood the rules. In other words: nothing wrong there.
2. We launch an internal investigation to which every team will be associated to see if we can improve. In other words: what happened is done and dusted, shut it up and see if you have better ideas for the future.
3. Conclusion: stop arguing about Max's title and Masi's competence.
 
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