By Daily Sports on December 11, 2021

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton face off for the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship in Abu Dhabi this weekend in what is arguably the most intense title decider in the sport's history.

And if it’s not the most intense – Ayrton Senna v Alain Prost in 1989 and 1990, which both ended in collisions between the participants, are pretty tough competition – it’s certainly right up there.

It is the first time two drivers have gone into the last race of the season tied on points since 1974. It is the first final-race showdown between two drivers from different teams since 2012.

And it comes at the end of a season characterised by bitterness and rancour between two teams and drivers pushing to the very limit – and sometimes beyond.

Verstappen and Hamilton have collided on track three times, and raced ultra-hard at many of the grands prix this season. Yet for most of the year any unpleasantness had more or less been limited to a war of words, and behind-the-scenes shenanigans over the rules, between the bosses of the two teams in question, Mercedes’ Toto Wolff and Red Bull’s Christian Horner.

But in Saudi Arabia last weekend the tense battle between Hamilton and Verstappen finally erupted in a race of quite extraordinary controversy and incident.

During it, Hamilton called Verstappen “crazy”. After it, he said the Dutchman drove as if the rules did not apply to him. Verstappen was penalised twice – once for gaining an advantage by going off the track; and once for dangerous driving, when he was found to have braked hard with Hamilton right behind him, leading to a collision between the two cars.

Through all that, Hamilton came from behind to pass Verstappen and win for the second time in three races, taking his third victory in a row. He has closed what had been a 19-point deficit after Verstappen’s victory in Mexico last month to nothing. And now the title awaits one of them in a winner-takes-all showdown. (BBC)

•PHOTO: Hamilton and Verstappen

Source Daily Sports

Posted December 11, 2021

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