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Formula 1: World Cup final between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton

2021-12-06T15:40:44.570Z


Before the last race of the Formula 1 season, two drivers were tied at the top - this has not happened since 1974. Will the duel between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen be decided by a crash?


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Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Photo:

GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP

"I don't think it will escalate," said the man who had previously thrown his headset with full force on a table in the pit lane.

"There were so many warning shots today for everyone involved that it will and has to go cleanly," said Toto Wolff after the chaotic Grand Prix premiere at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and: "Nobody can afford to go with to have a result that was not achieved on the route. "

Whether this is more of a conviction or a mantra on the part of the Mercedes motorsport boss cannot be said with certainty.

One thing is clear before the Formula 1 season finale: Max Verstappen can then afford it.

Although the Red Bull driver and rival Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes are tied (369.5) in the last race in Abu-Dhabi on Sunday (2 p.m. CET, live ticker SPIEGEL.de, TV: Sky), Verstappen has one more race win retracted (9: 8) if he were world champion, both were eliminated.

Is the crash coming or not?

The question is likely to be raised by the entire paddock and the majority of the spectators, at least since Sunday, when the two rivals failed to swap positions when they were announced without damage to the sheet metal.

What happened?

Verstappen left the track to fend off a Hamilton attack.

Verstappen and the race management knew that he had to let the British pass a little later because of this, but apparently not Hamilton and Mercedes.

On lap 38, Verstappen slowed down and turned right.

He had received instructions over the radio to carry out the change of position "strategically", that is, before the next DRS measuring point, in order to be able to carry out a direct counterattack afterwards.

When Hamilton made no move to pass the Red Bull, Verstappen braked harder, Hamilton started to overtake on the left and drove the Red Bull into the rear.

From Hamilton's camera perspective, you can see how Verstappen lurches slightly on the track during the stronger braking maneuver.

Both drivers were summoned to the stewards after the race, which Hamilton won.

It was not until shortly before midnight CET, around three hours after passing the start-finish flag, that it was clear that Verstappen's ten-second time penalty did not change the result (at the finish he was 15.7 seconds ahead of Hamilton's team-mate Valtteri Bottas ).

The stewards judged the most recent abrupt braking maneuver by Verstappens as the main cause of the collision, but from their point of view, Hamilton could have overtaken before.

But you understand, the stewards wrote, that neither of the two drivers wanted to be the first to pass the DRS zone.

This makes it easier for the vehicle driving behind to overtake.

The stewards apparently did not want to interfere in the result.

There was only one showdown in which two drivers with the same number of points went into the season finale: in 1974 McLaren driver Emerson Fittipaldi prevailed against Clay Regazzoni from Ferrari in the USA.

For the 30th time since the start of the racing series in 1950, the World Championship decision was made in the last race.

Hamilton also wanted to slow down for the World Cup

Since Nico Rosberg saved the title in the final from Hamilton in the team-internal Mercedes duel in 2016, Hamilton has made the World Cup perfect every year ahead of schedule.

The Briton could crown himself the sole record holder with eight victories in the drivers' championship on Sunday.

In 2016, Rosberg only had to finish third in a Hamilton victory.

Leading Hamilton tried to prevent exactly that by greatly reducing his pace at the top against the team order in the last laps in Abu-Dhabi, in the hope that Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen, who were third and fourth, would attack Rosberg.

But the quartet crossed the finish line in the same order as on a pearl necklace, and Rosberg triumphed.

Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill showed, among others, that it is not always without sheet metal damage in the premier class.

The 1996 World Champion had said that a World Championship decision due to a collision would be "sad" for the racing series.

Hill himself went into the season finale in Adelaide in 1994, one point behind Schumacher, and the German dominated until the 36th round.

After a driving mistake, he slipped off the track with his Benetton, and Hill, driving behind him, wanted to take advantage of that and overtake Schumacher.

But the defended, both cars collided, the Benetton landed in the tire wall.

Hill should only have crossed the finish line in fifth, but his Williams-Renault was also damaged and his race ended in the pits.

Schumacher won his first title.

At least when it comes to the desire for a fair end to the current World Championship fight, Wolff and the Red Bull team boss agree: “You want to win on the track and not with the stewards or in the gravel,” said Christian Horner: “It was that an uphill battle all year round.

The two drivers showed fantastic racing.

And I hope that there will be a fair and clean race in Abu Dhabi. "

At the end of the week it becomes clear whether reality follows the wish.

But it is also clear: not every World Cup in Formula 1 was brought out through courtesy.

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2021-12-06

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