Lewis Hamilton came within a lap of winning the 2021 world championship. In one of the most extraordinary finishes to a season ever – in any sport – Max Verstappen passed him on the final tour to snatch the title.
The cruel irony is that Hamilton won his first title with a last-lap manoeuvre, albeit on Timo Glock rather than his 2008 title rival Felipe Massa. But Mercedes were left seething at the sense of injustice.
FIA race director Michael Masi incorrectly applied the restart procedure after Williams driver Nicholas Latifi crashed and brought out the safety car. Bernd Maylander should have led the drivers across the line.
Hamilton was 13 seconds clear at the front of the field at the time. He knew he’d fall behind Verstappen if he’d pitted, but the Dutchman had a big enough cushion behind to fit fresh tyres.
That gave him an overwhelming advantage on the last lap, though he still surprised Hamilton with his lunge into the sector-one hairpin. Rather than the Mercedes driver sealing a record-breaking eighth title, Verstappen won his first.
Jenson Button knew how he’d congratulate Lewis Hamilton before Max Verstappen snatched title
Jenson Button was chosen to conduct the post-race interviews that day. He knew it would be one of the most viewed races ever as a title decider at the end of an epic campaign.
Button headed to parc ferme expecting to greet former teammate Hamilton as the winner. But he then received a message in his earpiece telling him about Verstappen’s pass.
At that point, he had to recalibrate. He had his questions and congratulatory message prepared, but all of the sudden the narrative had completely changed.
Button was also on duty at the Las Vegas Grand Prix last weekend, where Verstappen sealed his fourth straight title. He carried out the first interview with the Red Bull superstar on the Strip.
“The one that was the trickiest – I think for everyone involved – was Abu Dhabi,” he recalled. “I was walking towards the podium where I was going to deliver the lines ‘you are world champion’, but I was doing it to another driver.
“I had it all planned in my head that it was going to be Lewis. I had the questions all set up. As I’m walking to the podium, I heard in my ear, actually no, Max has won the world championship. This changes things a little bit!”
Max Verstappen sounded just like Lewis Hamilton after winning his fourth F1 world title
Hamilton would have plotted his revenge against Verstappen in the winter of 2021/22 – once he’d decided that he’d continue racing – but he hasn’t had the car to fight him since. Mercedes have spent most of the ground-effect era competing for podiums at best.
The 105-time race-winner will hope his move to Ferrari gives him the chance to dethrone his old rival. In the meantime, Verstappen has become more like Hamilton.
Peter Windsor says the 27-year-old shares the veteran’s ‘outstanding’ ability to ‘stay out of trouble’ at the start of races, even without the safety net of starting on the front row. Verstappen has lined up third or lower at six of the last 10 events.
After extending his title streak to four, he immediately expressed his ‘hunger’ to make it five. In that sense, Verstappen echoed Hamilton’s reaction to his own quadruple back in 2017.
