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Formula One F1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – December 12, 2021 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton after finishing second in the race and world championship with race and world championship winner Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and third placed in the race Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
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Formula One F1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – December 12, 2021 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton after finishing second in the race and world championship with race and world championship winner Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and third placed in the race Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
Max Verstappen lifted the 2021 Formula One world championship title after an ecstatic battle against his rival, Lewis Hamilton. The pair engaged in duels right from the opening race weekend in Bahrain right till the end in Abu Dhabi.
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Of course, many would acknowledge the Dutchman’s title victory was deserving enough; The Dutchman had indeed secured a total of 10 Grand Prix wins over that season. Hence, certainly more than dominant! Nevertheless, Hamilton delivered a commendable fight and almost won the championship at the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP.
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Formula One F1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – December 12, 2021 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton shakes hands with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner after finishing second in the race and world championship REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
The Briton was one lap away from securing his record-breaking eighth championship only for the race director, Michael Masi, to intervene in his title pursuit and make a huge mess. Masi meddled with the FIA rulebook which led Verstappen to snatch the race lead and, consequently, the championship lead from Hamilton on the final lap of the race.
How awful was it? Well, while many had anticipated either of the title contenders to cause an on-track incident, it was in fact, the FIA, in the end, that unexpectedly played spoilsport. And now, months later, Mark Webber, has expressed his disappointment with how the 2021 season ended.
Ex-Red Bull driver comes in support of Lewis Hamilton
Webber opened up that he isn’t disappointed with Verstappen winning the title, but showed a significant amount of displeasure over the fairness of the game.
“Both of them deserved to lift that trophy, but we did not want it to finish like that at all,” he said according to The Sun. “We wanted a straight fight, a clean fight, and unfortunately there was one guy with his hand tied behind his back.”
“Of course in hindsight, they would all agree we could have done something different, what happened wasn’t the ideal scenario.”
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Formula One F1 – Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – December 12, 2021 Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton celebrates finishing second in the race with the trophy Pool via REUTERS/Kamran Jebreili
Mercedes did try their best to bring about a different result by launching protests but in vain. The FIA remained adamant against acknowledging any of the appeals by the Silver Arrows. Eventually, as the new FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem came to power, assurances arrived.
The Arab recently promised that such errors will no longer occur in F1 after launching an investigation into the controversial Abu Dhabi GP.
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