Hamilton took the lead at the start after pole winner Verstappen got off to a bad start, but Max plunged inside Lewis on lap one at Turn 6. Hamilton took the runoff evasively and retained his lead despite missing the second element of the chicane.
Hamilton took control of the race despite Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez playing his winger role perfectly, holding up Lewis for two laps and undoing most of his advantage over Max.
A late safety car for a colliding backmarker allowed Verstappen to pit for soft tires, and race management called to let the lapped cars past the safety car between the title contenders and restart the race for one final lap .
On his fresher and softer tires, Verstappen overtook Hamilton to claim the most dramatic of all victories and the world title.
Results of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021
This is how the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix went
From pole position, Verstappen, who started on soft tires, got off to a bad start, allowing Hamilton to sprint to the top over the middle distance. McLaren’s Lando Norris ran far away from third place on the grid at Turn 1, so Perez and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz could be ahead of him.
Verstappen crashed on the first lap at Turn 6 in Hamilton. He reached the apex first and sniffed forward briefly as Hamilton walked into the run-off zone, but Lewis then regained a large lead at the exit of Turn 7 after cutting that corner. The stewards decided that an investigation was not necessary as they believed that Hamilton was slowing enough not to give up his position on the track.
Hamilton withdrew from Verstappen’s DRS range and was more than 2 seconds ahead on lap 7 and 5 seconds ahead on lap 12. Perez was clearly ahead of Sainz in third, while Norris had Charles Leclerc’s second Ferrari in fifth – and began to suffer from some transmission problems.
Verstappen pitted on lap 14 because of hard tires and pitted again shortly before Leclerc, who pulled out at turn 3 and lost one place to Tsunoda. Verstappen quickly overtook Norris in fourth.
Hamilton pitted a lap later to cover Verstappen and also took hard tires. He returned before Sainz – 5 seconds before Verstappen, who was still behind the Ferrari. Verstappen had a big moment behind Sainz at Turn 15 when he slipped off the track. In the meantime, Hamilton drove the fastest lap and opened the gap even further.
Verstappen overtook Sainz at turn 6 on lap 18, but was now 8 seconds behind Hamilton, who was getting closer to longtime leader Perez.
On lap 20, Hamilton DRS-ed passed Perez at Turn 6, but Perez stormed back forward. Perez spent the next lap trying to hold up Hamilton as best he could, until Hamilton DRS-ed him again at Turn 6 a lap later. That allowed Verstappen, whom Perez let pass immediately, to get 1.3 seconds.
Once clear, Hamilton will revert to the fastest lap setting mode and free again by 5 seconds. Valtteri Bottas’s long-standing Mercedes drove from third place to the pits on lap 31 and opened the door to Verstappen for a second stop.
Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo came to a halt on lap 36 at Turn 9, which resulted in a virtual safety car. Verstappen 6s behind, he pitted under the VSC for fresh hard tires while Hamilton stayed outside. He returned 17 seconds behind Hamilton when the race turned green again and tried hard to catch up with him.
Norris lost fifth place when he suffered a slow puncture and put fifth in the championship at risk as he was able to jump ahead of Leclerc, who had made an extra stop under the VSC and was outside the top 10.
For five laps remaining, Nicholas Latifi crashed his Williams at Turn 14 and drove out a safety car. Hamilton stayed outside when Verstappen stopped on softs. Perez retired with three laps to go, handing Sainz third place.
The race started again with one lap to go, with Verstappen right behind Hamilton and on fresh tires. Verstappen slowed Hamilton out at Turn 5 to take the lead, Hamilton fought his way back but simply couldn’t find a way around it.
Verstappen pulled away on the final lap to win the title, beating Hamilton, Sainz, Tsunoda and Gasly. Norris fought his way back to seventh place ahead of Alonso, Ocon and Leclerc.
Kimi Raikkonen retired on his last F1 start when his Alfa had a braking problem and he spun against the wall at Turn 6. He had to give up, as did George Russell, who lost the drive of his Williams.
Nikita Mazepin did not start the race after testing positive for Covid-19 before the finale.
Mercedes won the F1 constructors’ championship in 2021.
After the race, Mercedes filed two protests against the race result.
