At the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Max Verstappen was crowned champion in a final that fueled the opinions of fans everywhere. But what did our judges say about the last race of the season and who ended up at the top of the rankings after the 22nd and final Grand Prix?
FAN POWER RANKINGS: Your chance to rate drivers based on their performance in 2021
HOW IT WORKS
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Our six-member jury evaluates every driver after every Grand Prix and rates them 10 points based on their performance over the weekend – which takes the machines out of the equation
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Our experts’ results are then averaged over the season to create an overall performance ranking (at the bottom of the page).
Lewis Hamilton didn’t win the race or the drivers’ title, but he was our jury’s choice. An almost perfect result, as was the standard in this race at the end of the season, Hamilton may have missed pole position, but set the pace on Sunday.
The seven-time champion led all but seven of the 58 laps, no teammate who supported him against an all-out attack by Red Bull only lost in the very last lap.
READ MORE: Why Hamilton’s grace and dignity if defeated will only add to his legend
Max Verstappen, who scores almost as well as Hamilton in our power ranking, was instrumental in ensuring that he never lost sight of the final price in Abu Dhabi.
After Verstappen took pole and lost to Hamilton in the chicane at Turn 6-7 in lap 1, the stewards decided to skip the two races, he kept fighting and used the exploits of his teammate Perez to regain lost ground and a virtual Put the safety car on new hard tires and give yourself another chance to fight.
Ultimately, it came to that final lap shootout and the Red Bull driver led the only lap that counted.
READ MORE: Whatever you thought of the Abu Dhabi result, Verstappen was a worthy champion in 2021
Was that Yuki Tsunoda’s best performance in Formula 1 so far? The Japanese rookie scored well above the more established racing drivers after finishing a brilliant P4 on Sunday.
Eighth behind the Ferraris, Lando Norris’ McLaren and the usual top 4 starters, Tsunoda took one place in the first lap ahead of Charles Leclerc – his best result of the season in the last race of the season.
READ MORE: Tsunoda finishes the year at career level P4 after overtaking Bottas on the final lap
The last podium finisher from Abu Dhabi, Carlos Sainz, was rightly happy about third place on Sunday. The Ferrari used P5 in qualifying to pull a place away from Lando Norris at the start, stayed in front of midfield and jumped to the podium when Sergio Perez was eliminated in the end. He said it was probably his best Ferrari accomplishment to date.
READ MORE: Sainz Says the Abu Dhabi podium was the ideal way to end a “magical” first season with Ferrari
Dubbed the “Legend” and “Beast” for his exploits in stopping Hamilton in Abu Dhabi just before halftime, Sergio Perez was unlucky not to claim the final podium after being eliminated from his job on lap 56 did this admirably for the driver team that won the championship.
WATCH: Perez holds up Hamilton in an epic fight to bring Verstappen back into battle in Abu Dhabi
Lando Norris regretted his luck after a race in Abu Dhabi in which he lost to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on the first lap, pitied from P5 and slowly moved back there.
The McLaren driver was then frustrated when a slow tire damage pulled him into the pits on lap 48, allowing him to save P7 – but missed P5 in the overall standings to former teammate Sainz.
READ MORE: “I was just unlucky most of the time,” says Norris after falling from P3 to P7 in Abu Dhabi
Pierre Gasly admitted that he had a problem after qualifying that left him with a less than mediocre P12 on the grid. The AlphaTauri driver’s racecraft saw him pull through, however, as Gasly went through a long first stint and then pitted late, from a likely P7 end to climb to P5 to the finish.
READ MORE: 6 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix winners and 5 losers – Who ended the season in style?
Starting position eleven due to traffic problems in qualifying, Fernando Alonso was slightly angry until the session on Saturday – but, due to a long first stint on hard tires, he kept calm to drive up to fourth place, then finished P8 and refused to search for the pit at the last restart .
READ MORE: The youngest world champions – Where does Verstappen stand next to Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton?
Ocon, who qualified ninth, rounded off a solid colon result for Alpine and kept it clean with his teammate. He was unlucky not to benefit from either the Virtual Safety Car or the Safety Car, with P9 proving its upper limit on a good day.
Mick Schumacher, the only Haas rider in the race after Nikita Mazepin missed Covid, was accidentally part of the crucial moment of the race when he was fighting with Nicholas Latifi who then spun and fell. Less about it; more about the fact that Schumacher drove a pretty good race on Sunday, according to the judges, he kept his nose clean against an opposing strategy and ended up on P14 – his best since Hungary.
SAY WHAT: Enjoy the best team radio from the season finale in Abu Dhabi
The final ranking
No change at the top of the leaderboard, although Hamilton outperformed Verstappen by a few decimal places this week. That means that Verstappen has the highest score in the power rankings in the 2021 season!
At the bottom of the ranking, Carlos Sainz has moved up to fifth, level with Pierre Gasly, while George Russell has slipped back to P8 – and Sergio Perez’s season-end show brought him back into the top 10 of the final standings.
