Formula 1 championship decided on track, as it should be

This year’s epic Formula 1 championship battle between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen went down to the final lap, with Verstappen passing the seven-time champion after a safety car restart.

While there were certainly plenty of controversial points to feed three and a half months of off-season debate, in the end, race director Michael Masi and the race stewards let the two drivers fight for the title on the track over what may be the single most dramatic lap in Formula 1 history.

Race officials had their first chance to intervene on the opening lap, when Verstappen overcame a poor start to challenge Hamilton into turn six, forcing the defending champion off course. Hamilton rejoined the track ahead of Verstappen and the stewards opted to allow him to keep his lead.

Had they forced him to hand back position to Verstappen, it’s likely they would have swapped again before too long, as Hamilton was clearly the faster of the two all night. By lap 36, he had built up a five-second lead, so Verstappen opted to stop for new tires during a virtual safety car period.

It was the first of two gambles by Red Bull, both of which paid off.

When Nicholas Latifi spun and crashed with just over five laps remaining, Mercedes opted to leave Hamilton, who was a full 12 seconds ahead, out again. Meanwhile, Verstappen came in for fresh soft tires.

And when race control made the late controversial decision the five lapped cars between them seconds before the safety car ended, we had a dream scenario: a one-lap shootout for the world championship.

Verstappen then pulled off the first final-lap race-winning pass in Formula 1 since Hamilton took off teammate Nico Rosberg’s front wing en route to a 2016 Austrian Grand Prix win.

Hamilton gave the fight back for the remainder of the DRS-less lap, though, and both drivers’ skill and fortitude was on full display for that glorious final 3.281 miles.

Given the thin margin between Hamilton and Verstappen all season and their numerous on-track incidents, it was pretty obvious that race officials were going to be involved at some point today.

But from start to finish, they did an admirable job of giving the drivers room to play, given the circumstances.

Masi said as much to Wolff after the race, telling the raging Mercedes team principal that, “It’s called motor racing.” Wolff did his best to play Darth Vader to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner’s Luke Skywalker, demanding that Masi hand the title back to Hamilton after the race.

Mercedes ended up lodging two official protests related the controversy. Both were tossed, leading to the team lodging an intent to appeal.

His sticking point was that when Masi allowed only the five lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to clear the safety car before resuming racing. But the written rule allows race control to do so when and if they determine it is safe.

Notably, Masi had just told an impatient Horner minutes before clearing the lapped cars that his priority was to “get this incident clear” before making a decision.

And once that was done, he and the FIA had one job: to make sure the greatest championship fight in Formula 1 history didn’t end behind a safety car.

Instead, we got one of the most aggressive drivers on the grid, on new soft tires, chasing down and then holding off one of the greatest tire-life stretchers in Formula 1 on 43-lap-old hard compounds. Verstappen even made us watch him hold on through a couple of wiggles in the final few turns for good measure.

These two were literally miles ahead of the rest of the field for an entire season, and the incredibly memorable finish will keep Formula 1 fans engaged until the Bahrain Grand Prix kicks off what may be an even more intense championship fight in March 2022.

Hamilton will be energized by the loss and the challenge coming from new teammate George Russell, and Verstappen will have the confidence that comes from winning a title and the stability of a returning teammate in Sergio Perez.

All of that, plus some changes to the 2022 car, promise an even more exciting season next year. After the way this one ended, I can’t wait to see what that might mean.