Dhe title fight in Formula 1 goes to the limit. Or even beyond. After Lewis Hamilton’s 103rd career victory at the chaotic and also crazy Grand Prix premiere in Saudi Arabia, the motorsport premier class gets its grand finale. The Mercedes driver and Max Verstappen from Red Bull are tied for the final race of the season (369.5). A subsequent ten-second penalty against Verstappen for causing a collision in the race-decisive scene did nothing to change this constellation.
However: The Dutchman in the Red Bull is ahead because of the more races he has won (9: 8) and would be world champion if both were left without points in Abu Dhabi. And it is not unlikely that there will be another crash in this super-intensive World Cup duel in Abu Dhabi on Sunday (2 p.m. CET in the FAZ live ticker for Formula 1 and on Sky).
In Jeddah, the two exceptional pilots also performed exceptional maneuvers – as far as the uncompromising factor is concerned. Verstappen received a five-second penalty for his toughness in lap 37 and subsequently a ten-second penalty for an action that really upset Hamilton. The 36-year-old Englishman said that the Dutchman was “definitely over the limit”. “I avoided so many collisions with him.”
In the said scene, Hamilton drove Verstappen into the stern. The Red Bull driver had previously left the track without permission and, on the instructions of his team, was supposed to let the Briton pass again in order to avoid a penalty. Hamilton found it “confusing” that Verstappen suddenly slowed down, and thundered him in the rear. With a damaged front wing, the seven-time world champion managed to cross the finish line before his opponent.
“I wanted to let him pass, so I’m on the right side, but he didn’t want to overtake and then we touched,” said Verstappen, who currently feels Formula 1 is too fixated on penalties. “I don’t really understand what happened there.” Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko accused the rulers of discrimination. “You cannot measure with two different standards. If a seven-time world champion misjudges himself, that can happen, but not to our detriment, ”said Marko and clearly saw the mistake in Hamilton.
The world championship fight is intense – and is heading towards its final. With the next crash? “I don’t think it will escalate,” said Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. “Today there were so many warning shots for everyone involved that it will and has to go off cleanly. Nobody can afford to come up with a result that was not achieved on the track. “
Should Verstappen and Hamilton fail in the last race of the year, the 24-year-old from the Netherlands would be world champion for the first time because he has won one more Grand Prix this season than the seven-time title holder. There is a risk of a crash! “We just want a clean World Championship, may the best man win. If it’s Max in the end, then I have no problem with that. But it just has to be a fair race, ”said Wolff.
.
