Verstappen suffocated in Abu Dbahi

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen overcame Lewis Hamilton in the last seconds to win the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 12, thereby winning F1 for the first time.

Verstappen suffocated in Abu Dbahi

Two re-starts with Max Verstappen’s tricks could not prevent Lewis Hamilton from winning the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix on December 5 and catching up with his opponent on the F1 scoreboard.

After 21 races, the two racers have the same 369.5 points. Verstappen is still at the top due to having more than one opponent to finish first. This fierce competition at the top of the table is reflected in the exciting, dramatic night race with a series of events on the track in the somewhat narrow streets of Jeddah. Verstappen twice had to return Hamilton’s position due to illegal overtaking and the Mercedes driver finished first even though he sometimes crashed into the tail of the opponent’s RB16B.

The race was so eventful that it was hard for the audience to keep up, as the lead kept swinging back and forth between Hamilton and Verstappen. Finally, with 13 laps left in the race, Verstappen was asked by the home team to return the lead to Hamilton for having won it after forcing his opponent to sideline on Turn 1. The Dutch driver took the order but cannot be done immediately. Verstappen steered while slowing down suddenly when approaching the last corner. Running shortly after, the W12 crashed into the rear of the RB16B, resulting in Hamilton damage to the front spoiler.

Verstappen continued to take the first place before being overtaken by the opponent with only six laps left in the race. Verstappen’s behavior at Jeddah sparked debate about the Dutchman’s driving style, which is always uncompromising, ready to hit corners, even when his opponent has the advantage.

The race started quite quietly when the Mercedes duo took advantage of the early starting advantage to hold the first two running positions. The chaos only started at lap 10 when Mick Schumacher (Haas) crashed into the retaining wall at the high-speed corner of Turn 22. Safety cars were immediately deployed. At the time, Hamilton was in the lead, running just ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Verstappen. Taking advantage of the opportunity for the team to run behind the safety car, Mercedes called both drivers home to change tires.

Red Bull decided not to change tires for Verstappen, waiting for the opportunity to come back and temporarily take the first place. The red flag was raised at lap 13, the race was stopped, the cars were ordered to go to the pit to wait to clean up and repair the accident area. This gave Verstappen a big advantage as drivers were allowed to change tires during red flag periods.

When the race restarted on lap 15, Hamilton was faster than Verstappen and entered Turn 1 first. But Verstappen overcame the opponent by running off the bend, while Hamilton had to turn wide and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) took advantage of the middle to take second place. However, just a few seconds later, the race was interrupted again.

The race was immediately stopped because of two consecutive collisions. The first is Nikita Mazepin (Haas) collision with George Russell (Williams), the other is between Sergio Perez (Red Bull) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari). The red flag was raised again. Meanwhile, Red Bull was talking over the radio with race supervisor Michael Masi about Verstappen’s incident, and the two agreed that the Dutch driver would start in third place, right behind Hamilton, when the race was on. start again in round 17.

In this last start, Verstappen used medium tires, while Hamilton used hard tires. And when Hamilton tried to steer right to overtake Ocon in the first corner, Verstappen slid the RB16B into the corner and took first place. Hamilton and Ocon collided slightly in the corner, before the French driver took second place. However, Hamilton only had to wait for the next round to quickly pass Ocon and continue to follow Verstappen.

The first group order was maintained until round 36, when Hamilton attacked and tried to get past Verstappen. The W12 sped out and inched forward before both cars reached Turn 1. But Verstappen didn’t yield, and the two collided before swerving off the track – a moment reminiscent of their controversial incident. at the Brazilian Grand Prix on November 14. The referees decided to penalize the Dutch driver for 5 seconds due to this collision.

Masi then told Red Bull that Verstappen had to return the lead. However, at that time, Hamilton ran behind the Dutch driver quite far to deliberately not pass before reaching the DRS line to avoid being counter-attacked by the opponent. Verstappen then braked and slowed, resulting in a collision between the two drivers. Verstappen said he did not understand why Hamilton did not pass, and Hamilton wondered why Verstappen pressed the brake at that time. After the race, Verstappen was fined “Add 10 seconds to the record” for dangerous behavior.