The decisions taken by the FIA in recent weeks, with the dismissal of the now former Race Director Michael Masi, finally seem to have put an end to the fierce controversy that erupted following the controversial conclusion of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2021. The battle developed in course of the last lap of the race between Lewis Hamilton And Max Verstappen – who in fact awarded the world title, directing it to the Dutch Red Bull driver – will remain as an indelible memory in the memory of all motorsport fans. For two months now, there has been talk above all of the protests staged by Mercedes, which has repeatedly made it clear that it has not yet completely metabolized the facts of those last five laps, from the entry of the Safety Car to the forcing of the regulations to allow play at least one last round of the competition.
Verstappen himself has now wanted to speak more openly about those hectic stages of competition, which led him to be crowned world champion for the first time. The Hasselt native did so in an interesting documentary, entitled ‘Verstappen – Lion Unleashed‘, which will be broadcast by the Viaplay platform. As emerges from some excerpts, the orange driver relived the stages of his duel with Hamilton, starting from the heavy gap accumulated on the track before the Safety Car entered. “I knew I had 11 seconds behind Hamilton – explained the Dutch driver in front of the cameras – me I was trying to close the gap, but I knew I would never make it. But I told myself that it didn’t matter and that I would keep pushing. I didn’t just want to walk to the finish. Of course, however, in those moments I was certainly not happy, nor impatient to see the checkered flag “.
The episode that changed the race and the title race was obviously theaccident of Nicholas Latifiwhich then led to the entrance to the Safety Car. “It wasn’t communicated to me right away – revealed Verstappen – I saw the flashing yellow flags and then those of the Safety Car. So I thought: ‘Wow, something must have happened.’ Then I passed over the accident and thought ‘we hope to resume the race’, because the curve the car was in was quite uncomfortable and getting it away there seemed quite difficult. The split pilots? I was obviously happy that this was happening. This is usually a fairly normal procedure “.
Regarding the time of the decisive overtaking, the world champion explained that he aimed specifically at turn 5, to be able to surprise Hamilton. “The fact was also that he didn’t expect me to pass that curve. So I had some space on the way out. We were running with less downforce that weekend and had a good top speed. So I told myself ‘I need to go ahead’. Without the DRS, in a one-on-one match, I could defend myself by having the best top speed “. A plan that ultimately worked perfectly.
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