F1 | Red Bull, Max Verstappen: “I kept telling myself 'Give everything until the end'”

All seemed lost, but the lion won. Max Verstappen is the 1 Formula 2021 World Champion. After a season fought until the last lap, everything seemed to tip in favor of Lewis Hamilton, who took the lead of the Grand Prix at the start. The Dutchman attempts the attack, with Lewis going off track, and thus regaining the position. This is the first controversial episode of this long Grand Prix, with the race direction choosing not to intervene; Max is always the first to return to the pits to replace his softs, with Hamilton following closely behind. Sergio Perez has a great role, incredible in defending the position: he makes the Mercedes lose four seconds, giving Max the opportunity to get closer. The race continues like this, with Hamilton in the lead and Red Bull hot on his heels, until Max is forced to pit during the Virtual Safety Car, while Lewis remains on track. Only twenty laps available to recover eighteen seconds, but now everything seems lost. There were five laps left until the checkered flag and Hamilton's proclamation when Latifi had contact with Mick Schumacher and hit the wall. The Safety Car is on the track and Max Verstappen takes a gamble, returning to the pits to put on the red ones, while Hamilton stays out with the hard ones he had put on forty laps earlier. The cranes remove the car, the race direction once again becomes the protagonist, waiting for the penultimate lap to split the lapped drivers. There is only one lap available: Safety returns, Hamilton slows down, Max attacks and takes the position, the victory and the first world title of his career. The Yas Marina Circuit explodes, there is chaos in the Orange stands. Max Verstappen is world champion. Max Verstappen ended the dominance and dethroned the Black King.

Great work by Honda, which returns to win a world championship: the engine fitted eight races ago on the Red Bull number 33 demonstrates how much the Japanese engineer has improved since his entry into Formula 1 in 2015.

Despite all the criticism aimed mostly at the race direction, this remains a memorable world championship. From that position given up in Bahrain - which, with a different outcome, Verstappen might have regretted - up to today's protests regarding the management of the final moments of the race, without forgetting what happened in Jeddah: this world championship was fought until the last second, there was no shortage of surprises, and barring posthumous surprises, Verstappen won. That's how it ended. There was a big hug between the two contenders at the end, with Lewis congratulating them and their respective fathers saying goodbye on the back podium: the scene of a world championship experienced to the limit on the track by two great riders e men.

"Being World Champion is incredible and I couldn't have asked for a crazier race than this for the last round of the year. It was an incredible race, we went from having no chance of winning until the last lap where everything changed and we had to go for it. I kept telling myself 'I'll give everything I have until the end' and that's what we did – revealed the world champion – obviously, with the restart after the Safety Car we had fresher tyres, but you still have to make your move, luckily it worked. I want to say a huge thank you to Checo, thanks to his performance today I won the world championship, he drove with his heart for this team. What happened today shows us what real teamwork is, I think he is a fantastic teammate. Mercedes won the constructors' championship, and we won the drivers' championship, and this shows how throughout the year we challenged each other to the limit every weekend. Lewis is a fantastic driver, there's no doubt about that. Obviously, we had our moments during the season, but I think after everything that happened during the season, it was a fantastic fight and both teams gave everything".