Saudi Arabia Grand Prix: Drama on the streets of Jeddah after Hamilton beat Verstappen
Saudi Arabia Grand Prix: Drama on the streets of Jeddah after Hamilton beat Verstappen
By Aaron Price
The F1 title race will go down to the wire after Lewis Hamilton beat Max Verstappen in a controversial and dramatic Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
The championship rivals clashed three times on track – including Hamilton running into the back of the Dutchman – but it was the Mercedes driver who emerged with his eighth win of the season.
The two drivers are now level on points heading into the final race in Abu Dhabi, with Verstappen ahead in the standings because he’s won one more race.
Here’s how it went down in Jeddah.
Hamilton wins as Verstappen falls foul of the stewards
Much like this championship battle, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was full of lead changes, momentum swings and controversy.
We’ll skip the early drama – and there was plenty of it, with two red flags and some first-corner skulduggery from Verstappen in defence of his lead – and head straight to lap 37.
Verstappen was ahead but on tyres wearing down and in a car with less performance, he was struggling to keep Hamilton at bay.
On lap 37, Hamilton had a run on Verstappen and dived down the outside. His car was marginally ahead as they turned in but Verstappen refused to give it up and both drivers went wide.
The Red Bull man was quickly told he’d gone too far – even though this was not as blatant as a similar incident in Brazil that he got away with – and was told to give Hamilton the lead.
He reduced his speed but Hamilton, unaware of why the Dutchman was slowing, went straight into the back of him. The incident sparked an investigation, while the two confused drivers out front assessed the damage as they went round.
Verstappen eventually let Hamilton through and that was that. Hamilton won the race and set the fastest lap, meaning he gained eight points on his rival.
But the drama was not yet done, both drivers blaming each other for their numerous comings together. The stewards sided with Hamilton and awarded Verstappen a 10-second penalty for deliberately brake-testing his rival, leading to their crash.
He leaves in a bad mood and with championship lead evaporated.
The Track
Whatever your opinion, the Jeddah Corniche circuit certainly won’t be dull year on year.
Is it too fast? With average speeds per lap in excess of 150mph, many fear it increases the risk of an accident to unfair levels.
But across the weekend, only Charles Le Clerc and Mick Schumacher made a mess of their cars in the wall, while Sergio Perez and Nikita Mazepin’s crashes were the result of cars tangling.
However, the drivers all seemed to love it. Despite it being a street circuit, overtaking is certainly possible and the cars look epic under the night sky.
We’ll be back here in April, with the race bumped up the calendar to second in 2022 – and it can’t come soon enough. Some tracks are boring and soulless, this one is not.
Elsewhere…
It’s easy to forget, there were 18 other drivers racing on Sunday and Valtteri Bottas completed the podium by nicking third on the line.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon led the race at one stage but when the leaders sailed through, he was fighting to hold off the second Mercedes.
Bottas pipped him to the line, while Daniel Ricciardo was fifth, Pierre Gasly sixth and the Ferraris of Le Clerc and Carlos Sainz in seventh and eighth.