Massi made his final fateful call, only the lapped cars between Verstappen and Hamilton would unlap themselves and the safety car would leave the track leaving one lap - ONE LAP - for a shootout between Verstappen and Hamilton. This didn't sit well with Red Bull's Christian Horner and, it should be noted, the Sky commentators either who believed the lapped cars should be moved ahead to let Hamilton and Verstappen have their proper race positions realised. This would mean they couldn't 'race' against Hamilton or Verstappen and were technically obliged to get out of Verstappen's way as he lunged for Hamilton. FIA race director Michael Massi had the unenviable task for figuring it how and if they could restart the race with only three laps to go, all the while trying to focus on getting Latifi's Williams safely off the track.Ī first call was made, that the lapped cars could not unlap themselves on the restart. Verstappen was in second place but had five lapped cars between him and leader Hamilton. For both teams, their strategy was a gamble but Red Bull and Verstappen had the slight advantage of having literally nothing to lose by going for it. Instead they opted for track position over fresh tyres. Verstappen did just that and, in retrospect, Mercedes and Hamilton probably wish they had too.
For those new to the sport, and there seem to be a lot following the success of Netflix's Drive to Survive series focussing on F1 and its cast of characters, safety cars are the great equaliser in any race.Ĭars are inevitably bunched together before a restart can continue and those who play their cards right can find themselves getting a fresh set of tyres 'for free', meaning the time it takes to pit is negated by the slowness of the pack. That miracle came when Nicholas Latifi crashed in the closing laps meaning a safety car was deployed to control the flow of cars as the Latifi's binned Williams was safely wheeled away. Verstappen was about ten seconds behind Hamilton going into the final six laps of the race and Red Bull manager Christian Horner had admitted to commentators they were praying for a miracle from the 'race gods'. Going into the final race at Abu Dhabi, Hamilton and his rival, Red Bull's Max Verstappen, were equal on points after Hamilton caught up to the dutchman in their series of desert duels in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton fought a hard battle throughout the season.