Lewis Hamilton won a drama-filled Saudi Arabia Grand Prix and has levelled with Max Verstappen in the battle for the title. PHOTO: F1.com

BRENDAN LINES DECEMBER 6, 2021

Lewis Hamilton has levelled the drivers’ championship battle with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, winning a chaotic incident-filled Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.

Stewards will conduct a post-race investigation to decide if  Verstappen brake tested Hamilton — in accordance Article 2 of the regulations — causing the collision between the championship combatants on Lap 37.

A slowing Verstappen was instructed by Red Bull to hand back the race lead for a previous incident on the lap, Hamilton unwittingly then ran into the back of the Dutchman’s car.

Earlier in the lap, Hamilton had attempted to make a DRS-assisted pass into Turn 1 — an unyielding Vertsappen left the track gaining an advantage to retain the lead.

The incident was just one in a drama- filled race punctuated by a two red flags just a lap apart. 

The first stoppage came on Lap 11 when Mick Shumacher’s Haas collied with the wall on the exit of Turn 21, dislodging a Tech-pro barrier.

Mercedes had rolled the dice and double stacked Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas’ pitstops, just before Schumacher’s crash, and Mercedes worst fears were realised.

Much to Hamilton’s dismay over team radio, the Lap 11-red flag handed Verstappen a free pit stop to change to the Hard tyres.

A subsequent red flag came out after the restart, when backmarkers George Russell and Nikita Mazepin came together, while further up Hamilton made a blinding start, but was pushed wide by Verstappen into Turn 1, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was the benefactor taking the lead after restarting from P3.

The interruptions kept coming with three virtual safety car periods, allowing Hamilton to close the gap to Verstappen to just 1.8s. By then Vertsappen was handed a five-second time penalty for the initial lap 37 incident.

Hamilton eventually got past Verstappen and pulled a slight gap to take the win.

Meanwhile Bottas who had dropped back to P5, accounted for McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo on his way to pipping Ocon in a photo finish by a tenth of second, taking an important podium in the context of the constructors’ championship.

Both championships will go down to the wire in next weekend’s season finale in Abu Dhabi.

While the drivers’ championship locked at 365.6 points each, Verstappen holds the advantage winning more race so far this season.

Full results

1	44	Hamilton	50 laps	2:06:15.118	26 points
2	33	Verstappen	50	+11.825s	18
3	77	Bottas	50	+27.531s	15
4	31	Ocon	50	+27.633s	12
5	3	Ricciardo	50	+40.121s	10
6	10	Gasly	50	+41.613s	8
7	16	Leclerc	50	+44.475s	6
8	55	Sainz	50	+46.606s	4
9	99	Giovinazzi	50	+58.505s	2
10	4	Norris	50	+61.358s	1
11	18	Stroll	50	+77.212s	0
12	6	Latifi	50	+83.249s	0
13	14	Alonso	49	+1 lap	0
14	22	Tsunoda	49	+1 lap	0
15	7	Räikkönen	49	+1 lap	0
NC	5	Vettel	44	DNF	0
NC	11	Perez	14	DNF	0
NC	9	Mazepin	14	DNF	0
NC	63	Russell	14	DNF	0
NC	47	Schumacher	8	DNF	0

* Provisional results. Note – Hamilton scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race. Tsunoda received a five-second time penalty for causing a collision. Verstappen received a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.