Max Verstappen won the 2021 Formula 1 world championship with a last-lap pass, but it was a pass that may very well not have happened.
When the decision was made to allow the lapped cars between race leader Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen to unlap themselves and it was announced that the safety car period would be ending with one lap remaining in Sunday’s 2021 Formula 1 season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at Yas Marina Circuit, things looked destined for a dramatic finish.
Verstappen had made a pit stop during the safety car period to put on new soft tires, while Hamilton did not, and he was slated to restart on 43-lap-old hard tires.
Hamilton had led 51 of the 57 laps around the 16-turn, 3.281-mile (5.280-kilometer) road course on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates leading up to this restart with one lap remaining. Verstappen hadn’t led any.
But Verstappen took the lead with a lunge down the inside of turn five, and he held off two serious challenges from Hamilton throughout the rest of the lap to win not only the race but his first world championship.
However, despite Verstappen’s massive tire advantage, it was a final lap that almost didn’t go his way.
As he crossed the line with one lap to go on the restart, the 24-year-old Dutchman got a massive cramp in his throttle leg.
Given the nature of the track, Verstappen had to not only utilize the throttle to gain enough speed to make the pass into the braking zone in turn five, but he had to battle through that pain on multiple straights to hold off a far more powerful Mercedes, a tall task even with Hamilton on much, much older tires.
Here is what Verstappen had to say about the matter.
"“I started to cross the line for the last lap and I got a massive cramp in my leg so I had to deal with that, in my throttle leg as well. When I was actually going to go for the move into turn five, I had a massive cramp and I was actually very happy there was a corner coming up so I could actually brake.“But that was also the move to then go into the lead which was great but then there were two long straights to defend and to deal with a cramp like that is not very nice. But I also knew I was fighting for a world championship here and it’s always been my dream so I was just biting through that moment. On TV you don’t see those kind of things but it was very painful.”"
Verstappen held off Hamilton after the two entered turn nine side by side, and he went on to win the race by 2.256 seconds over his title rival to claim his first world championship, ending a four-year run of Hamilton winning it. Hamilton is still tied atop the all-time titles list with Michael Schumacher at seven.