“Don’t push me, I’m going to cry,” says Esteban Ocon of missing out on the podium at the very last. “Five metres to the end, that was what cost us the podium ... hard to swallow, the competitor inside me is frustrated and very sad ... today was an outstanding team effort once again.”
Fair play.
Anyway, that’s all from me. Thanks for reading, emailing, tweeting ... that was mad wasn’t it? And it all comes down to next week in Abu Dhabi. See you soon for more.
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“Hi Luke, having read Alex Kroon’s email to you, I can tell you that the headline in EL PAIS is that Verstappen performed a “strange manoeuvre” causing the touch with Hamilton,” emails Simon West. “And that he “turned the struggle for the championship into a dirty fight”, so other parts of Europe are obviously taking a view on what happened today.”
Updated
Looking at an on-board replay from Verstappen’s car when Hamilton hit him, it looks to me as if he is genuinely trying to let Hamilton through. But, ultimately, that incident is not why people are complaining about Verstappen today – it was more a couple of reckless moves in corners (which, it is worth pointing out, he was punished for during the race) ...
Race report!
More Hamilton quotes, from a press conference: “I took a lot of risk at the end, with the damage that I had, to get the extra point [for the fastest lap] ... we keep pushing, we never give up ... today I think I’ve seen a passion in my team which I don’t think I’ve seen in 10 years, and that’s amazing.”
Hamilton gives his version of the contact with Verstappen: “I didn’t get the information, so I didn’t really understand what was going on, it was very very confusing, all of a sudden he started backing up and started moving a little bit [across the track], I was like: “Is he trying to play some crazy tactic? I don’t know.” The message started coming through just as he ... like, he hit the brakes so hard that I nearly went up the back of him and took us both out.
“For him ... it doesn’t matter for him if we don’t both finish. For me, we both need to finish ... but it’ll be interesting to see what happens.
“I’m personally chilled ... I’m personally chilled ... I feel like I’m in the boxing ring, and I’m ready to go.”
Updated
Lewis Hamilton has a chat: “For me, I had to try and keep my cool out there which was really difficult to do, and, like, I’ve raced a lot of drivers through my life, in the 28 years [of racing] I’ve come across a lot of different characters, and there’s a few like at the top which are kind of, yeah, over the limit ... yeah ... rules don’t apply, or don’t think the rules apply.
“Today, I just tried to do my talking on the track, keep the car between the white lines, and do it the right way, I was trying to catch ... we got the pole, then I lost out, then I got back past, he passed over the kerb.
“There were just so many crazy curveballs ... then he obviously brake-tested, I think, to try and get the DRS back into turn 1 to overtake me again. There was the commotion, I lost my wing ... I took a lot of risks to get fastest lap.
“He’s [Verstappen] over the limit, for sure. I mean I’ve avoided collision on so many occasions with the guy and I don’t always mind being the one that does that, you live to fight another day, which I obviously did.”
Updated
Lewis Hamilton is going to speak to Sky shortly.
Updated
“Hi Luke, As a Dutchman I have a feeling that you are biased,” emails Alex Kroon. “Had a quick scan of the European papers (Le Monde, Bild, etc.) No one is even mentioning things like this except they all see it as a epic title fight. Maybe focus more on that."
A bit of friction between Damon Hill and Christian Horner in that post-race reaction just then ... meanwhile Paul Di Resta thinks the constructors’ championship is sealed for Mercedes, with Bottas snatching third place on the line.
Mercedes have 587.5pts, Red Bull have 559.5pts in that competition.
Christian Horner says the team are not down, despite seeing Verstappen’s championship lead eroded so dramatically over the past few weeks.
Mahim Mishra emails: “This race is a perfect demonstration of why it is so fraught to compare the great drivers of this era, Hamilton included, with the greats of the past, and apply labels like Greatest Of All Time. It is entirely plausible that Verstappen will win several drivers’ titles and himself be part of that G.O.A.T. conversation in a decade and a half. Yet had he been racing in the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s, he’d be dead by now.”
“Interesting isn’t it that Verstappen just admitted that he indeed did apply the brakes in that slowing down situation in addition to downshifting 5 gears?” emails Andrew Chappell. “Therefore brake testing? He had no need apply the brakes after all the slowing down.”
Christian Horner of Red Bull has a chat: “That was a race that was very difficult to manage ... I think race control struggled with it ... we feel hard done by with the five-second penalty ... and then the incident when Lewis has driven into the back of Max - we informed race control we were giving the place up. I don’t know if he’s [Lewis] messing around for the DRS line there, we had informed race control we were going to give the place up ...
“We said OK, we’ll give the place up and we informed race control.”
“It’s weird, it looks like Lewis has lifted off, it’s like he didn’t want to pass him there because of the DRS ... we picked up quite a bit of damage with that. It’s very frustrating and very annoying.
“It was a shame with the quali, yesterday, not to get the pole but Max was able to address that and get the lead.”
Christian Horner is about to speak to Sky Sports.
Meanwhile, Verstappen again, on the contact with Hamilton: “I was just down-shifting and braking for him to go by ... I looked in the mirror and waited for him to pass ... maybe there was some confusion ... I was already off the racing line, I don’t know ... maybe he was looking for the DRS, they told me on the radio to let him by, so that’s what I did.
“Like always, I’ll try to do the best I can [next weekend].
“Brundle usually talks a hell of a lot of sense - from a position of huge experience,” emaills Tony Bartholomew. “So if he’s saying Verstappen has crossed a line today, I think that says something.”
I agree 100 per cent.
Wolff, continued: “I need to reserve judgment, I will see the race again tomorrow ... the driving needs to be assessed and looked at ... it’s hard, very hard, maybe over the line hard ... we just want to have a clean championship, may the best man win, and if Max wins at the end I have peace with that, but it needs to be fair.”
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team principle, speaks to Sky Sports: “I don’t think this is yet done ... the result, he [Hamilton] deserved it ... he could have been out a few times with a broken front wing ... I don’t want to do ‘dirty laundry’ here. That was spectacular, but not a good race.”
“Hamilton didn’t know [Verstappen was giving the place back], there was the wrong sequence of messages ... DRS was not on Lewis’s mind ... I think it could have been confusion, absolutely, but the stewards will look precisely at the telemetry, and then come to a conclusion.”
Updated
Nadim Chaudry emails: “For Lewis to have kept his head in what to my mind was almost homicidal tactics by Verstappen is just incredible. I do hope the stewards look at Verstappen’s behaviour ... Reckless and just not sporting.
“In years to come I think that may be judged Hamilton’s finest race. A great great champion with none of the malice of Schumacher, Prost, Senna. The British public need to appreciate this man more. He’s a gent on and off the track. Love him to bits.”
Hamilton did incredibly well to keep his composure. Absolutely no question about that.
“It looks to me like it’s a less malicious move by Max than we first thought,” says Damon Hill, on pundit duty for Sky.
“They were two big hits, I don’t know how they both continued,” says Di Resta of the contact between Hamilton and Verstappen.
“It’s applied after the race,” says Richard Wood of the five-second penalty. “It’s not a drive-through penalty.”
“I’m a lifelong F1 cynic but have been drawn in by this gripping, vindictive finale,” emails Paul Griffin. “If neither finish the last race – a fair bet judging by today’s streetcraft - who wins the championship?”
The answer is that Verstappen wins by virtue of having won more races this season. So that’s obviously not a potential issue at all!
Interesting stuff from Nick Honeywell on email: “From the high camera angle (not quite overhead), it very much looked to me like Verstappen almost came to a stop and the got back on the gas straight away, causing Lewis to hit him. Presumably the stewards will have access to the telemetry which will prove this one way or the other.
“Either way, absolute madness from Verstappen, who is a danger to everyone else on the track now.
“Also, re: “why didn’t Lewis just go around”, I suspect that because Verstappen had slowed so unnaturally, he was worried there might be an obstacle - crashed backmarker or debris - that would’ve been the reason Verstappen slowed, so wouldn’t have wanted to overtake at speed and smash into something.”
Red Bull, apparently, say they have the data to prove that Verstappen did not ‘brake test’ Hamilton.
That incident, by the way, is being investigated so it’s possible Verstappen will be punished in some way.
“What I don’t understand is, why didn’t Lewis go by?” asks the Sky F1 pundit Paul di Resta.
“I don’t think there was anything malicious from Max at that point.”
“So what happened about Verstappen’s 5 sec penalty that he didn’t appear to take?” asks Steve on email.
I was wondering the same thing. Was it something to do with the fact that third place was so far back it wouldn’t have made any difference? I honestly don’t know.
Verstappen walks off the podium and plays no part in the celebrations.
Going into the Abu Dhabi grand prix, in seven days, both Hamilton and Verstappen are on 369.5 points each. Remarkable stuff, no matter what the rights and wrongs of what happened today, and what happened across the race.
Bizarrely, my video feed dropped out at the precise moment that Verstappen was asked about the little shunt with Hamilton, and came back just as he was finishing his answer. Sky Sports then apologised for that, so it wasn’t a problem at my end. Strange.
Updated
“Verstappen did a Rassie Erasmus on it today ... acting way over the top, unsportsmanlike and downright dangerous,” emails John Fitzsimons.
The drivers are on the podium now: Hamilton, Verstappen, Bottas, in that order.
A remarkable race that was far from perfect. A farce? I’m not sure. I think Hamilton has every right to be unhappy with some of Verstappen’s driving ... as for the little shunt, it did look like Verstappen veered into Hamilton’s path at the last minute. Whether that constitutes ‘brake testing’ him is another question.
Updated
Max Verstappen is voted driver of the day by fans and says something about being glad that the fans understand racing, and ‘it’s not Formula One’ if it’s more about penalties than racing ... Controversial!
Lewis Hamilton, the race winner, speaks: “I’ve been racing a long time and that was incredibly tough ... I tried to be as sensible and as tough as I could be out there ... [I used] all my racing experience just keeping the car on track and staying clean ... we’ve had all sorts of things thrown at us in the second half of the season ...
On the contact with Verstappen: “I didn’t understand why he hit the brakes quite heavily ... then I ran into the back of him ... then he moved on ... I got a message afterwards [that he was giving a place back], it was a bit confusing.
“They’ve [Red Bull] got some raw pace, they have been so quick, it was very hard to overtake them today.
“This is for all the guys and girls back in the factory ... the people have been lovely [in Saudi Arabia] and the track is phenomenal to drive. Very difficult physically and mentally but you wouldn’t want it any other way.”
Bottas speaks: “It was tricky with all the red flags ... it was quite difficult to overtake. It’s a nice track, a big challenge physically and mentally.”
Max Verstappen speaks: “It was quite eventful ... a lot of things happened which I don’t fully agree with ... I tried on track to give it all ... just lacking a bit of rubber I think towards the end, but still second.
“It will be decided in Abu Dhabi, hopefully we’ll have a good weekend there.”
Updated
I’m getting a lot of emails, a LOT of emails, with accusations of bias from me on both sides, and only one abusive one so far ... I’ll take that.
An absolutely crazy grand prix, with a lot of questions to be answered: Is that circuit too dangerous for Formula One? Was the punishment for Verstappen handled correctly? For just two ...
Updated
Hamilton climbs out of his car and I have never seen him celebrate as riotously as he is right now.
There is a massive amount to unpick from that race but what Martin Brundle says on commentary for Sky Sports is surely right: Verstappen crossed the line today in terms of safety and fair racing.
Updated
“I don’t know why he [Hamilton] went up the back of you there Lewis, it made no sense at all,” says a Red Bull team member on the radio to Verstappen.
At the end of an absolutely mad, and some may say farcical, grand prix, Mercedes take first and third on the podium with Lewis Hamilton winning the race ... Max Verstappen of Red Bull finishes second and it will be all square going into the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
“Verstappen’s got to look at his driving standards, that was too much today,” says Brundle.
“That’s more like it! Great job today guys!” says Hamilton on the radio.
Bottas finishes third!
Lap 50/50: Hamilton closes out the win ... Bottas takes Ocon at the last and gets on the podium! Wolff is pictured smiling and clapping.
Lewis Hamilton wins the Saudi Arabian GP!
Astonishing, astonishing stuff!
Lap 50/50: Bottas gets past Ocon! But Ocon grabs the place back immediately!
Updated
Lap 49/50: Up to 8.2sec for Hamilton at the front. Bottas keeps trying to put pressure on Ocon and grab the podium place ...
“So if it stays like this they will be equal on points but Max ahead on wins - guaranteed then that he will crash into Lewis’s car and do a Schumie,” emails Steve Ditchburn.
Updated
Lap 48/50: Fastest lap for Hamilton! This has been an awesome drive from him yet again ... Bottas meanwhile is trying to get past Ocon and snatch third place ...
Hamilton has over seven seconds at the front of the race! Incredible! Is Hamilton going to remonstrate with Verstappen at the end over what he called his ‘fucking crazy’ driving?
Updated
Lap 47/50: Over five seconds at the front for Hamilton and Mercedes ... he’s also got damage to his front wing after that earlier contact with Verstappen.
Updated
Lap 46/50: Hamilton is streaking away at the front now. Ocon is nearly 25 seconds down in third place ... Verstappen is four seconds down on his title rival. If it finishes like this, Hamilton and Verstappen will go to Abu Dhabi, the final race of the season, all square. Absolute scenes.
Lap 45/50: Brundle says Red Bull need a fresh set of tyres for Verstappen and they need to go to the fastest lap.
“He left him loads of room ...” says Brundle ... “Then at the last moment there was some movement [from Verstappen].”
Lap 44/50: Hamilton leads the grand prix by nearly two seconds and Verstappen has the five-second penalty, when is he going to take that?
Lap 43/50: This is too much. Hamilton now overtakes Verstappen! Again! And Verstappen still has the five-second penalty to soak up.
Lap 42/50: Verstappen lets Hamilton past ... and then immediately overtakes again!
Verstappen has now apparently been hit with a five-second time penalty for leaving the track (that must be a few laps ago, when Hamilton overtook him on the start/finish straight ...)
Updated
Lap 41/50: There is a fierce row going on in the pits between the race director and the teams as to who said what and when ... and if it was clear to Mercedes that Verstappen was giving the place back. This really is madness.
Verstappen was clearly slowing though, why didn’t Hamilton just go around him, even if he was slightly over to the middle of the track from the left ?
Lap 40/50: “I think it was a misunderstanding, frankly,” says Brundle of that latest incident between Hamilton and Verstappen.
Race control have instructed Verstappen to give the place back to Hamilton.
“Red Bull will say we tried to give him the place back, and he ran into us ...” says Brundle ... “Mercedes will say he brake-tested us.”
Updated
Lap 39/50: A message from a friend comes in via WhatsApp: “In fairness, Red Bull have correctly calculated that this track turns the race into a lottery and they can take their chances that either a red flag or multiple safety cars will allow them to get to to the end without another pit stop.”
Lap 38/50: Hamilton and Verstappen touch!
This is mad. Verstappen is told on the radio to give the place back ... he slows down, but in the middle of the track. Hamilton, seemingly unaware, can’t slow down in time and touches the back of Verstappen’s car, and damages his front wing! This is crazy!
“He just brake-tested me!” Hamilton says of Verstappen. Wolff is pictured looking furious in the pits. Along with the rest of the team. What is going on!!?
Updated
Lap 37/50: “Fucking crazy, man,” Hamilton says on the radio.
Lap 36/50: Hamilton is pushing, pushing, pushing ... Hamilton overtakes down the start/finish straight! But Verstappen, again, isn’t having any of it! They touch in the corner and Verstappen emerges further in the lead!!!
Lap 35/50: Hamilton sets the fastest lap by 8/100ths of a second. He is a fraction under a second behind Verstappen. This is a great battle. Ocon, Ricciardo and Bottas are third, fourth and fifth respectively.
There is more debris on the track.
Lap 34/50: “Lewis clearly shoved Max off the track and then Max is blamed for it?” emails Rick McGeady.
I don’t agree with that. Hamilton got a better start, by a mile, he ‘owned the corner’ as Brundle said. And Verstappen, in desperation, went off track to try and keep the lead.
Updated
Lap 33/50: “Isn’t the rule that the criminal is punished rather than the victim resurrected?” emails Rob Rouge. “Max was told to give back his position, i.e. fall back behind Lewis. Esteban did nothing wrong, so could stay where he was. When Valtteri pushed Max off track for a DNF the other day, Max wasn’t put back into the race, but Valtteri was punished. It would be good if this Lewis fan site could explain the rules, even when they’re not in its hero’s favour. This is a good battle between two great talents.”
Thanks for the kind words! I am very much neutral and impartial, I can assure you...
Lap 32/50: The ‘VSC’ endures at the laps tick down. However this plays out from here, I must admit, I am kind of looking forward to the post-race interviews go. There are going to be a lot of strong opinions from all sides on this one!
Lap 31/50: “What plays into Red Bull’s hands here is that all these virtual safety cars aren’t taking much out of Verstappen’s tyres,” points out Brundle on commentary for Sky.
Lap 29/50: Another virtual safety car, to clear up yet more debris on the track. I’m getting a lot of emails featuring the word ‘farce’ ... and there is plenty of sympathy for Hamilton in how this is working out so far ... Verstappen and Red Bull gambled after that first crash, and it paid off, but the way Verstappen’s punishment was handled after he clearly unfairly overtook Hamilton does indeed seem ridiculous.
“The circuit is in the worst condition of the weekend,” says one of the drivers on the radio referring to the debris on track. This is dangerous for the drivers.
Lap 28/50: Debris on the track, and a brief virtual safety car. The gap between the race leader, Verstappen, and second-placed Hamilton seems to be moving up and down. Hamilton is chasing hard ... one moment it’s 1.5secs, then it seems to move down to under a second.
Lap 27/50: Top 10:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +1.435
3 Esteban Ocon Alpine +14.279
4 Daniel Ricciardo Mclaren +18.238
5 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +18.354
6 Pierre Gasly Alphatauri +20.849
7 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing +28.715
8 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +31.885
9 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +32.968
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +36.591
Lap 26/50: The gap between Verstappen and Hamilton is down to under half a second!
Lap 26/50: “I agree with Felix Wood. This is a farce,” emails David in Stockholm. “It reminds of Michael Schumacher running people off the track to win and no one did anything. That’s when I stopped watching the sport. This is season has got me back into it, but this is no good ... I’m off out for a beer. Greetings from Stockholm.”
Updated
Lap 25/50: Hamilton is 1.2secs behind Verstappen. Can he catch his prey and overtake? How is Verstappen’s car going to hold up after that qualifying crash? What is the tyre strategy going to be for the two protagonists in the title race from here?
Lap 23/50: In the pits, Toto Wolff looks ashen-faced. Hamilton and Mercedes lost a lot of time, for some reason, on that last lap before the virtual safety car. The virtual safety car ends with Tsunoda in the pits. And we are racing again ...
Lap 23/50: Yellow flag! Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) spins off, his front wing comes off, and he gets a bit snarled up while trying to drive over it ... and now it’s a virtual safety car!
Lap 22/50: Hamilton trails Verstappen by 1.5sec, doing his best to put his title rival under pressure.
I hear you, Felix, but I guess the race director, rather than asking for Red Bull to decide, was gauging whether or not they would protest his decision, which is an important distinction. It did seem odd though, no question about it.
“I’m genuinely baffled by this,” writes Felix Wood on email. “Since when do teams get to decide what is an acceptable punishment for them? Ocon was first because Verstappen broke the rules, but Red Bull get to decide the starting order? And the stewards don’t get involved at all? This is a farce, no?”
Lap 20/50: Hamilton is under a second behind Verstappen. Verstappen sets the fastest lap.
“Lack of power, guys,” Verstappen says on the radio. It’s all happening.
Updated
Steve Ditchburn emails regarding that second standing start: “So Hamilton was leading and Verstappen did something that caused him to drop two places? Then the race director says that Hamilton has to drop to second!!Surely that cannot be right?”
Updated
Lap 17/50: Amazing stuff, really. A real ding-dong battle on and off the track ... Hamilton overtakes Ocon and is now in second place, hunting down his title rival Verstappen.
They replay the start on TV - it’s almost as if Hamilton had no idea Verstappen had the pace - or the intention - to try and take him on the inside into that first corner. It was a bold move by Verstappen to say the least and it paid off. And that was the THIRD standing start that we have had so far today ...
Updated
Race restarts! Lap 17/50: Verstappen overtakes Hamilton!
Well ... that was exciting ... again! Verstappen brakes late, diving down the inside of Hamilton. Ocon is forced wide on the outside as a result of Hamilton having no space ... and Verstappen leads!
Updated
Colin Boulton emails: “Why should Hamilton not be on pile for the restart, he did nothing wrong.”
Esteban Ocon leads the cars on to the grid, after the third formation lap of the day.
@LukeMcLaughlin pantomime season is well and truly here.
— Marc S (@SwaMarc) December 5, 2021
As mentioned on commentary on Sky Sports, the incident with Verstappen and Hamilton was not referred to the race stewards. It was the race director who negotiated with Red Bull regards to the punishment for Verstappen.
Anyway, it’s pretty clear that as George Russell said, the drivers need to absolutely millimetre-perfect to avoid crashing on this narrow, fast circuit ...
It’s another standing start, says Michael Masi. We’re going to have the third standing start of the day ... I wonder if it will be as exciting, and as controversial, as the last one.
“My Gawd, this could turn into a fiasco of a GP,” emails Steve Carbert. “I’m still expecting Max Verstappen’s gearbox to implode though.”
“Unless Hamilton wins by enough to have a points lead going into the last race, he will have no chance in Abu Dhabi,” emails Phil Haran. “Because it’s clear Verstappen WILL take Hamilton out to win the championship. There can be little doubt about it after this last restart.”
This is all quite odd, but it’s interesting. “Uncharted territory, I would say,” observes Brundle. It seems likely now that the race will restart with Ocon on pole, Hamilton second and Verstappen third. We’ve already had two red flags. Half an hour ago, Verstappen looked to be in a perfect position, having elected not to pit after Schumacher’s crash. Now, after the race restart in which Hamilton got a much better start than his rival Verstappen, it seems the advantage it back with the British world champion, after Verstappen attracted censure from the race director for going off track at the first corner.
Correction, so the deal is: Ocon will be on pole, Hamilton second, Verstappen third.
Red Bull say they will accept P2, on the condition that Ocon is on pole, which seems like a ludicrous idea to me. Obviously it would not be fair to drop Hamilton down to third given he led into the first corner, and was in control of the race, before a move by Verstappen that the race director has now concluded was not fair.
Updated
Toto Wolff is pictured marching down the pitlane.
Red Bull are told that Verstappen can start in second position, a place behind Hamilton, after what occurred at the first corner. Red Bull ask for a minute or two to think about it. “We thought we were pushed off there,” they say.
Updated
The problem for the stewards, in one way, is that Esteban Ocon of Alpine made his way between Hamilton and Verstappen on that corner, so can they reasonably demote Verstappen two places, behind Ocon?
Updated
“Was it fair in your opinion?” Brundle is asked by David Croft of Verstappen’s move at that first corner.
“No. Lewis owned the corner.”
Lap 15/50: This is going to be a very interesting decision for the stewards ... Hamilton went down the inside, and was clearly ahead having got a far, far better start than his rival ... Verstappen just veered on the outside, off the track, ‘outside the white line’ as Hamilton says on the radio to his team now, and retook the lead.
“And you are also obliged to rejoin the track in a safe manner,” says Brundle.
Verstappen will have to give the place back ... won’t he?
Updated
Lap 15/50: Race restarts! Mazepin crashes! Another red flag
Wow! Wow! Hamilton got a better start by Verstappen, by miles, and led into the first corner ... but Verstappen forced his way back across the track, and just bullied his way back into the lead ... back down the track, Nikita Mazepin smashes into the wall in his Haas, and it’s another red dlag.
Lap 15/50: Verstappen is now complaining that Hamilton, who should be no more than 10 car lengths behind on the formation lap, is way more than that behind. “That’s not allowed,” says the Dutchman.
Updated
“Why is the safety car driving so slow? We can’t heat up the tyres,” Verstappen complains on the radio, a familiar refrain.
Lap 14/50: The cars are rolling back out. Those time gaps from before are beside the point, of course. We are now having the second formation lap of the day ... and it should be a standing start, as opposed to a rolling start, when the race gets back on.
We thought there would be drama ... and there is drama!
Verstappen rolls back into the fray, on nice, shiny new hard tyres. He must be feeling as thrilled as Hamilton is dismayed.
Updated
Hamilton speaks on the radio to his team: “So what’s the scenario now? What are we going to do?”
“Hi Lewis, everyone’s going to go to the end on these hard tyres,” comes the response ... “the main thing to do is pressure him [Verstappen]”.
Updated
Lap 14/50: The race is still red-flagged. This is the top three as it stands:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull (1 stop)
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes (2 stops)
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes (2 stops)
Updated
Lap 14/50: The race will resume in 10 minutes. On the radio a while ago, Hamilton sounded suspicious, as if Red Bull had some inkling that there would be a red flag. There is no evidence for that, of course, and as Brundle said on commentary even before the red flag came out, it made sense for Red Bull not to copy Mercedes and pit immediately when the safety car came out. They needed to gamble to try and wrest control back from Mercedes, who had enjoyed a perfect start to the race having started one-two on the grid. But even Red Bull’s Christian Horner may not have hoped it would have worked out quite as well as it has ...
Updated
Lap 14/50: “That was a roll of the dice and it came up double six for Red Bull,” says Brundle on commentary. “But there’s a long way to go yet.”
Lap 14/50: Hamilton, on the radio, sounds furious. “Find out what the reason for the red flag is?” he asks. Verstappen is back in the pits with his helmet off while the team work on his car. Hamilton knows that Verstappen has gained a huge advantage by virtue of that red flag, taken by the race officials, while they try and tidy up Schumacher’s crash.
“Have they said what the reason is? ... that’s unbelievable man. That was a big gamble that they just took ...” Hamilton adds.
Updated
Lap 13/50: Red flag! Race suspened and Verstappen can change his tyres!
Big moment. The red flag, suspending the race, means the cars will return to the pitlane ... crucially that means that Verstappen can change his tyres, having not previously pitted. On a track where it’s so tough to overtake this could prove pivotal in the title race ... Brundle on commentary points out that Hamilton benefited from this scenario at Imola.
Updated
Lap 13/50: The safety car remains while they continue to clear up after Schumacher’s accident. A few moments ago Verstappen was asking if the safety car could fo faster, a few moments ago. He’s a man in a hurry. The accident is going to complicate matters for pit strategy.
Brundle: “Mercedes were in control ... if they’d just followed Mercedes in, they would be on an identical strategy.”
Updated
Lap 12/50: We see replays of Schumacher’s crash, which was a heavy one. Verstappen sits behind the safety car, having not pitted, with Hamilton and Bottas behind him having changed their tyres.
Lap 11/50: The crash has made the pit strategy interesting ... Hamilton and Bottas both pit immediately for Mercedes. Verstappen stays out and now leads!
“There’s a very good chance there will be another safety car or incident,” says Brundle on commentary.
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Lap 10/50: Mick Schumacher (Haas) crashes heavily! It’s a safety car ... “Are you OK, Mick?” his team asks on the radio. “Yeah I’m OK ... sorry about that,” he replies sheepishly. The car is a mess but thankfully he is OK.
Lap 9/50: For those of us hoping for a wheel-to-wheel duel between Hamilton and Verstappen today, it’s not looking too good right now. The top three are pulling away from the rest of the field, Hamilton is streaking away.
Live standings on lap 8/50:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes
2 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +1.486
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +3.015
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +7.694
5 Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +9.760
6 Lando Norris Mclaren +15.735
7 Esteban Ocon Alpine +17.341
8 Pierre Gasly Alphatauri +18.787
9 Daniel Ricciardo Mclaren +19.312
10 Fernando Alonso Alpine +22.502
11 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing +23.040
12 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +23.647
13 Yuki Tsunoda Alphatauri +25.114
14 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo Racing +26.210
15 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +27.855
16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +31.026
17 George Russell Williams +32.949
18 Mick Schumacher Haas F1 Team +34.531
19 Nicholas Latifi Williams +36.149
20 Nikita Mazepin Haas F1 Team +39.001
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Lap 6/50: Verstappen in third place is now 1.5seconds down on Bottas. Both the Mercedes, that of Hamilton and Bottas, are clearly flying. Bottas gets on the radio and seems to ask if Hamilton can push it a little more at the front and widen the gap because he doesn’t want to be in his slipstream.
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Lap 4/50: My first impressions of the circuit is that it’s nigh-on impossible to overtake. There it little room for manoeuvre. Bottas takes the fastest lap.
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Lap 3/50: Hamilton leads Bottas by 1.5secs. At the start of the race, Sergio Pérez of Red Bull locked up his wheels when he nearly went into the back of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
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Lap 2/50: The circuit is noticeably narrow and super-fast. As George Russell said, the drivers need to be millimetre-perfect in everything they do. I’m waiting for some on-screen timings, but Hamilton leads from Bottas, with Verstappen third.
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Lap 1/50: Everyone gets away cleanly. Hamilton, Bottas and then Verstappen stay in first, second and third. An ideal start for Mercedes as they look to crank up the heat on Red Bull ...
Lights out! The Saudi Arabia grand prix has begun!
Hamilton gets away well and leads into the first corner!
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Hamilton has been flawless in recent races. He’s been playing catch-up for much of the season so perhaps the pressure is on Verstappen not to throw it away ...
Anyway, the formation lap has begun, and we are just a couple of minutes away from showtime on this narrow, fast circuit in Saudi Arabia, which is looking stunning at night, positioned on the edge of the Red Sea.
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Will yesterday’s mishap affect Verstappen? He would dearly love to have been on pole, and in more control ... and how much will he attack at the start, will he go all out to try to get past Bottas in second?
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There’s plenty of pressure on the start, which will take place in under 10 minutes. Verstappen currently leads Hamilton by eight points in the drivers’ standings. If he leads by 26 points or more by the end of the race, he is champion. In other words, he needs to out-score Hamilton by 18 points or more today to seal the championship with a race still to go. But as things stand that looks unlikely: for instance, he’d need to win the race, take the fastest lap point, and for Hamilton to finish sixth or lower. We shall see.
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Toto Wolff of Mercedes speaks: “One and two is really good for us, I hope we can stay there. If it stays like this - knock on wood - then it’s all wide open for Abu Dhabi.
“I work up this morning and it’s so exciting, this is why we are racing, the butterflies in the stomach ... we are so privileged to be involved in a title fight like this.”
George Russell of Williams, who starts 14th on the grid, speaks: “Hopefully a lot of action ... you’ll be punished if you got a millimetre too much, or too little ... I hope it won’t be too difficult to overtake ... you’ve got to be inch-perfect everywhere you go.”
Sir Frank Williams died just a few days ago, of course, and Giles Richards remembers him here:
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We’re 15 minutes away from lights out.
You’ve got time to read Giles Richards’s report from qualifying:
Carlos Sainz of Ferrari, who starts 15th on the grid, has a quick chat: “I should be in the points today with a good race ... it’s a balance to find.”
Brundle asks Christian Horner of Red Bull if they should have changed Verstappen’s gearbox after that accident: “It’s passed all the tests we’d normally do ... there was no pressure to take additional risks ... we’ve got to go for it, Max has been driving beautifully this weekend ... it was a great shame yesterday not to convert that lap but there is a lot of racing to be done.”
Martin Brundle is doing his famous gridwalk now. He has spoken to Mika Hakkinen, who thinks Mercedes’s recent speed gives Lewis Hamilton the edge in the drivers’ title race, despite the fact they are playing catch-up.
Adrian Newey of Red Bull, their chief technical officer, tells Brundle that no significant damage was caused to Verstappen’s car by that shunt in qualifying.
Half an hour until lights out. Pre-race reading on a controversial sponsorship deal for Mercedes, with Kingspan, an insulation company linked to the Grenfell Tower disaster:
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Preamble
Mathematically speaking, Max Verstappen of Red Bull could win the drivers’ title in Saudi Arabia today, in the penultimate grand prix of the Formula One 2021 season. But with his championship rival Lewis Hamilton on pole position for Mercedes after a dramatic qualifying session, the Dutchman (who starts third on the grid) will not be taking anything for granted.
Hamilton’s fighting spirit has come to the fore in recent weeks and if this season is anything to go by – including that latest instalment in qualifying, when Verstappen looked to be heading for pole before hitting a trackside wall on his final flying lap – we should be in for another generous dose of excitement. There is no shortage of needle between the protagonists either, Hamilton and Verstappen in the drivers’ cockpits along with Toto Wolff of Mercedes and Christian Horner of Red Bull, with the drivers’ and constructors’ championships still up for grabs.
The season finale next week in Abu Dhabi beckons, but could someone strike a decisive blow in Saudi Arabia today? It’s not out of the question. We’ll find out from 5.30pm when the lights go out. Pre-race reading and more coming up.
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