If Formula 1 generates fans, that is because of races like this. The premiere of the Saudi Arabian GP will be remembered for years for the fight between Lewis hamilton and Max verstappen, in which the British won after a fight in which he brushed against unsportsmanlikeness and which had everything. The 2021 World Cup is tied at 369.5 points with one race to go, guaranteeing an epic championship finale.
Valtteri Bottas completed the podium of a memorable race that will be remembered for years to come. Carlos Sainz was 8th and Fernando Alonso 13th.
Clean exit, procession and ‘Masi-cada’
The fear of an accident that would spoil the options in the first few meters made it a very clean start. So much so that there were no changes of positions above, despite the fact that Sergio perez He almost wore Verstappen. Hamilton escaped as Bottas widened to slow him down.
The one who won the most positions at the start was Fernando Alonso, who immediately placed 10th. The Asturian’s initial arreón took its toll: from being the one with the best pace initially, he began to lose positions with Giovinazzi, Alonso and even Tsunoda. But beyond that it was being a quiet race … until it appeared the Michael Masi factor.
Mick schumacher It crashed into Turn 22, forcing the safety car out. The race was neutralized behind him, so some teams decided to make their pit stops. Among others, Mercedes, who brought in first Hamilton and then Bottas to mount hard tires until the end of the race. Instead, Red Bull decided to wait for Verstappen, who took the lead.
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When the crashed Haas was removed, Masi took a turn: he raised the red flag. All to the pits to make a subsequent restart under the current positions, which de facto meant that between Masi and Mercedes’ strategy they had given the first position to Verstappen. The Dutchman put the hard work during the break and, therefore, wasted no time in the obligatory stop that he had already made.
The highlights, the surrealism of Masi and Verstappen ‘on fire’
The resumption of the race lasted just long. Hamilton and Verstappen pushed each other off the track, with more aggressiveness from the Dutchman who had lost the first position to the British. This left him without space in the first corner and the reaction of the Red Bull was to take him off the track in the second.
The great beneficiary was Esteban Ocon, who was suddenly 2nd and, ultimately, on pole. And is that Michael MasiIn a further demonstration that he is absolutely unpredictable, he literally negotiated with Red Bull and Mercedes. In the end, Ocon was the poleman for the third race start, with Verstappen forced to restore the position to Hamilton.
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The third start of the race was for Verstappen. For reasons or flats, the Dutchman was determined to take this race and by sheer elbows he was able to put himself first after overtaking Hamilton in the first corner, who sinned innocently when trying to cover Ocon, and the Alpine driver himself.
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The race slowed down relatively then. Alonso made a spin in that uncontrollable Alpine that he had already complained about on Saturday, while ahead of him were two world champions such as Vettel and Raikkonen.
The Finn, with an unexpected excess of aggressiveness, rammed the side of the Aston Martin and the pieces that remained on the track forced the deployment of a virtual safety car. Some riders, like Alonso, radioed for one more step since those pieces of carbon fiber were in the middle of the line.
The clash between Verstappen and Hamilton
The controversy of the day (and that will last several days) reached ten laps to go.
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