The 2025 season has officially ended, with the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix proving the deciding race for the 2025 Drivers’ Championship. And while a three-horse race was an intriguing finish, the most exciting and controversial finish was the one at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

This was a year when the title challenge came down to the final race of the year, with Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen battling for the title. Race after race, the two battled for the title, with it all coming to a head at the final race weekend.

Welcome to Lore Tuesdays, a weekly series through the off-season, telling you stories about the greatest moments in Formula 1 history. Each week, we will retell one of the greatest F1 moments in history and why it is so ingrained in Formula 1 history. Strap in, here we go!

The 2021 Formula 1 season

The 2021 season started with Lewis Hamilton in top form. The British driver had just won his seventh Drivers’ Championship, tying Michael Schumacher’s all-time record. This was building to be the year in which he cemented his legacy as the GOAT.

On the other side was up-and-comer Max Verstappen. The 24-year-old had finished third in the last two seasons and was making a name for himself as a future world champion.

21 races would decide the championship.

The first half of the season

And those 21 races lived up to the billing. Each race was a hard-fought battle, with the two neck-and-neck all season long.

Hamilton won at Imola in round one, then Verstappen beat him at Portugal in round two. Hamilton then won in Spain and Monaco, beating Verstappen at the iconic Grand Prix after Verstappen had been leading Monaco most of the race.

This back-and-forth battle would last until Silverstone, when the tension would rise.

Silverstone 2021

The iconic British race is Hamilton’s home race, and one of the fastest on the grid. The first corner of the track is called Copse Corner. Because of how it is banked, drivers approach at exceptionally high speeds, often exceeding 290 km/h.

Right as the race began, Hamilton and Verstappen went wheel-to-wheel around the corner, and their tyres touched. Due to the speed and with Verstappen on the outside, the Red Bull driver went flying into the wall and was taken to the hospital for precautionary reasons.

Hamilton would go on to win the race, and Verstappen naturally did not score a single point. Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner was irate, calling the move “desperate” and “dangerous”, while Mercedes’ Toto Wolff called it “hard driving”.

Hamilton received a 10-second penalty in the race, but that did not stop him from winning the race. This ramped up the intensity between the two.

Monza 2021

The next few races were no different, with both drivers pushing hard to win the points. Race 14 in Monza was another chaotic race.

On lap 26, Hamilton came out of his pit stop and was picking up speed going into the chicane. Running up alongside Verstappen, the two are wheel-to-wheel through the first turn, but on the second, the two collide, and the back of Verstappen’s car lands on top of the cockpit of Hamilton’s car.

The halo, the titanium ring that sits around the cockpit, saved Hamilton’s life in that moment. Without it, Verstappen’s tyres would have hit Hamilton in the head and likely would have killed him.

Both drivers blamed the other for the crash, with Verstappen arguing that Hamilton didn’t give him room, while Hamilton claimed that Max would rather crash than give up track position.

In the end, the stewards sided with Lewis, giving Max a 3-place grid penalty in the next race.

The final few races of the 2021 season

Things got very tense from there. Both Red Bull and Mercedes were very terse in their responses in press conferences, and Max and Lewis were clearly unhappy with each other.

In both Brazil and Saudi Arabia, the two drivers were playing close to the line, jostling for track position and fighting for every inch of space.

In Brazil, Lewis felt that Max pushed too aggressively, with both drivers ending up off the track. No penalties were given.

In Saudi Arabia, the second-last race of the year, there were multiple instances of gamesmanship between the two drivers. Verstappen pushed Hamilton off the track, Max gained a position illegally and was forced to give it back, Hamilton ran into the back of Verstappen’s car, and moved.

The race was chaos. Multiple safety cars were called. There were numerous red flags throughout the race, but in the end, Hamilton finished P1 and Verstappen finished P2.

Going into the final race of the season, the drivers were tied at 369.5 points each.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021

This was 2021- Formula 1 was right in the middle of the Drive to Survive era. Millions of new fans had come into the sport, and Liberty Media wanted a big finish to engage them.

Qualifying finished with Max on Pole, Lewis in second, then Lando Norris of McLaren in third and Sergio Perez of Red Bull in fourth.

Right at the start of the race, Max and Lewis went wheel-to-wheel, and their tyres touched slightly. Max was able to retain the lead.

On turn six, Lewis finally got ahead of Max, going around the outside to pass the Red Bull. However, Max wasn’t going to let him go easily and cut off the track to try to regain the position. He was unsuccessful, but the radio chatter went crazy, with Mercedes arguing for a penalty. None came, as Race Control stated that Hamilton regained the position by being ahead.

The controversy continues

As the race goes on, Hamilton starts to pull away, gaining a gap on Verstappen. On lap 14, Max pits to change his tyres, with Hamilton going in one lap later.

This elevated Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to first. Team orders came over the radio to hold up Hamilton for as long as possible, and he did admirably for as long as he could. This allowed Verstappen to close the gap to Hamilton.

It would be for naught, as the Mercedes was much faster than the Red Bull and would pull away.

On lap 35, Antonio Giovinazzi would be forced to retire his car due to a gearbox issue. This caused a virtual safety car, which prompted Red Bull to bring Verstappen in to change his tyres and not lose position. Mercedes knew that if they did the same, they would likely lose track position, and elected to keep Hamilton out.

While this did make an impact, with the amount of time left in the race, it would not be enough to catch Hamilton if everything stayed equal.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021 finish

But all things are rarely equal. On lap 53, Nicholas Latifi crashed after battling with Mick Schumacher. This caused a safety car to come out. Hamilton, again, stayed out, while Verstappen again went in to pit to change to soft tyres.

When Verstappen came out, he was still in second, but because the cars bunched up behind the safety car, five cars were one lap behind the race leaders between the two.

The steward then makes the call as to whether all lapped cars are to pass the safety car, go all the way around the circuit, and rejoin at the back, or to remain in place during the safety car restart then make way for the cars ahead of them.

Race control makes the call

Initially, the call from Race Control was that the lapped cars would stay in their position. However, on lap 57 of 58, Race Director Michael Masi issued an order that only the five cars between the first- and second-place cars were permitted to pass the safety car.

This violated Article 48.12 of the FIA Articles, which says that, “…any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car… once the last lapped car has passed the leader, the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap.”

The five cars passed, eliminating the gap between Hamilton and Verstappen completely. After the final car passed the safety car, Race Control announced that the safety car would end, opening the race up for the final lap.

Mercedes was furious. Toto Wolff got on the radio to Masi and said, “Michael, this is not right! This is NOT right, Michael! You only let some cars through, not all! This is manipulation!”

Masi’s response would echo forever when he replied, saying, “Toto, it’s called motor racing. We went car racing.” This response was an instant meme and became part of F1 lore forever.

Verstappen was on brand new soft tyres, while Hamilton was on hard tyres that had been on for the last 35 laps. Mercedes’ race engineers told Hamilton this, and he just responded saying, “ok”. He knew what was about to happen.

When the race restarted, Verstappen was able to pass Hamilton on lap five, and while Hamilton pushed to retake the lead, Verstappen’s tyres were too fresh, and he went on to win the race. Verstappen won his first Drivers’ Championship at the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Aftermath of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Immediately, Mercedes protested the results. They argued first that Verstappen had overtaken under safety car conditions, which was waived off immediately.

They then argued that the Race Control had violated the rules by allowing just the five lapped cars to pass the safety car, not all the lapped cars. This should have resulted in one more lap under safety car conditions, ending the race under safety car. F1 dismissed this appeal because the race director had “overriding authority” on race rules.

While Mercedes initially appealed the decision to the FIA’s Court of Appeal, they later dropped this, citing the integrity of the sport and not wanting to receive the win in a courtroom, but on the track.

Following the race, multiple drivers and teams came out condemning Masi’s actions during the race. Numerous pundits also argued that had they followed the rules, Hamilton would have won the race and the championship. However, others argued that lapped cars should have been allowed through sooner, and this likely would have led to Verstappen passing Hamilton and winning the race anyway.

What came out of this race?

Following the 2021 season, the FIA released new guidelines on how drivers are allowed to combat each other and created tighter rules for violating track limits. This was done to reduce accidents and ensure fairness.

In early 2022, Michael Masi was removed as part of a broader restructuring plan for race weekends. Race Control was completely restructured, adding new parameters as to what teams can and cannot say. There were also changes to how the safety car works and governing its management. Masi would not work for Formula 1 again.

This was the most-watched Formula 1 race of all time, with an estimated 108 million people watching the race. Drive to Survive dedicated an entire episode to this race.

The final result of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

While there will always be those who put an asterisk next to Max Verstappen’s 2021 Championship Title, at the end of the day, he lifted the trophy. But just like the Calgary Flames’ 2004 Stanley Cup run or the 2009 Chelsea-Barcelona match, the legacy of this controversial final result will live on in Formula 1 lore.