Another defining moment as Max Verstappen is blamed for being hit from behind by Lewis Hamilton. Photo ? Supplied
World Champion Lewis Hamilton arrived at the new Jeddah circuit in Saudi Arabia and immediately told the media he didn't feel "comfortable" being there.
His concern was around the country's history of human rights abuses, as well as the law and beliefs in the country, presumably seeing himself as some sort of universal ambassador for human rights. Uncomfortable or not, it didn't stop him winning his third consecutive race to draw level on points with championship leader Max Verstappen who, after being subjected to three penalties imposed by the FIA race director and race stewards, may feel like his rights to be crowned champion are being violated.
The Saudi Arabia race will go down in F1 history as one of the most incident-filled and controversial races on a track labelled "dangerous" by most drivers and called "dirty" in some media reports because of more clashes and incidents on track between Hamilton and Verstappen. The latter received all the blame as Hamilton was not punished despite two visits to the steward's room. Ironically he arrived in Saudi Arabia espousing equality, yet refuses to take any of the blame for his clashes with Verstappen, saying he was offended by references to his team cheating, and claims his rival doesn't follow the rules, while he does everything humanly possible to stay within them
Hamilton visited the race stewards for two incidents in Practice 3, one for not observing a yellow flag, but unlike Verstappen and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who got grid penalties in Qatar, Hamilton was cleared because he hadn't seen the yellow flag.
His team was fined €25,000 ($41,600) when Hamilton impeded Haas driver Nikita Mazepin in FP3, but the driver escaped penalty, because apparently the team should have warned him that Mazepin was approaching the corner.
Emerging from that meeting with the stewards, blameless, Hamilton praised the diversity of the stewards, noting one was a woman, and another was of a similar colour to himself. That praise if you could call it that, would later pay dividends as despite rear-ending Verstappen during the race, it would be Verstappen who emerged with a 10-second time penalty, because he was deemed to have driven erratically, yet the guy who hit him from behind was not.
Mercedes, led by Toto Wolff, had more outbursts of rage during the race when it was red-flagged to repair the barriers after Mick Schumacher's crash that had initially brought out the safety car, during which Hamilton stopped but Verstappen did not. Hamilton thus lost the lead to Verstappen and he blasphemed about the FIA decision as though he was the only driver affected. Wolff should have been fined for smashing his headphones on TV, just like a tennis player is fined or loses points for racket abuse.
The lead in this race changed hands four times. Here's how Verstappen described his race to the media.
"Confusing! Third, starting first. Dropped to third, third to first, five-second penalty, second, finished second, touches, yeah, I don't know," he tried to explain.
"I don't agree with all the decisions, but I also don't want to talk about it too much as I don't think we need to talk about it. They don't deserve any mentions."
When Verstappen held out Hamilton on the restart after the first red-flagged situation, he was deemed to have forced his way past Hamilton, and while they were squabbling,
Esteban Ocon in the Alpine briefly took the lead before Verstappen overtook him. The race was red-flagged again shortly thereafter to retrieve three cars, George Russell, Mazepin and unfortunately for Red Bull, Sergio Perez.
In the pits FIA race director Michael Masi gave Red Bull the option of dropping behind Hamilton for the restart or facing the stewards. Red Bull reminded Masi that if they accepted giving the place to Hamilton back, it would surely have to be behind Ocon. Masi apologised for his mistake and agreed. On the third restart, Verstappen snuck through a gap on the inside while Hamilton and Ocon made contact, with Hamilton forcing Ocon off the track, but there was no hint of a penalty for the former. Ocon's car suffered floor damage in that contact, which cost him a podium finish.
As the race progressed, Hamilton got a run on Verstappen with DRS and overtook him briefly into the first corner, but Verstappen was having none of it, and out-braked Hamilton who had to take avoiding action. Verstappen, already on a five-second penalty, was then told to give the place back, which he tried to do, but it all went wrong, with Hamilton claiming he was brake-tested as he hit the rear of the Red Bull. Thereafter it got messy, as Verstappen had damaged rear tyres from the contact with Hamilton, so the lead changed for a final and decisive time.
Hamilton had win number 8 of the season, and career win number 103 to go with his record of 103 pole positions. Better still, with fastest lap despite the damaged front wing, he got an extra point so heading to Abu Dhabi is equal on points with Verstappen, who still leads the championship only by virtue of one more race win. Whoever finishes ahead in Abu Dhabi is champion, unless both finish out of the points.
Hamilton said he felt like a fighter ready to get in the ring, and celebrated on the podium with Bottas who had passed Ocon just before the finish line, to give Mercedes a 17-point lead in the Constructors' title. Verstappen, having walked off that podium as he had no interest in spraying rose water, has been labelled a poor sport, while Hamilton rubbed salt in his wounds.
"From my understanding, I know I can't overtake someone and go off the track and then keep the position," Hamilton said. "That's well known between us drivers. It doesn't apply to one of us I guess," Hamilton sarcastically added, having called Verstappen "f***ing crazy" during the race.
"This is not the first time I've had to avoid a collision. That's how I felt in the moment -sometimes you say things in the heat of the moment and you go back and rewatch things and maybe you feel differently."
And when Hamilton hit the rear of Verstappen's car, each in effect blamed the other.
"Well, I didn't get the information, so I didn't really understand what was going on," Hamilton claimed.
"It was very, very confusing. All of a sudden he started backing up, and then kind of moving a little bit. So, I was like 'is he trying to play some kind of crazy tactic? I don't know.'
"But all of a sudden the message came through just as he hit the brake so hard, and I nearly went up completely in the back of him and took us both out. It doesn't matter for him if we don't both finish. For me we need to finish. But it will be interesting to see what happens."
Verstappen had a different take.
"At one point they told me I had to give the position back so that was I think just before Turn 22. So then after 22/23 I went to drive to the right-hand side and I slowed down. I was braking, downshifting and he just stayed super close behind me and I don't really understand why."
The stewards did, because in their decision they said "while accepting that the driver of Car 44 could have overtaken Car 33 when that car first slowed, we understand why he (and the driver of Car 33) did not wish to be the first to cross the DRS."
So, the stewards found that Hamilton didn't go past a rapidly slowing Verstappen, because the latter would have then used DRS to repass him. They decided Car 33 was driving erratically and was the predominant cause of the collision, even though Hamilton had room to pass. The decision means they accept he didn't want to be jumped by DRS, so he gets no blame for running into his opponent.
Penalties and alleged erratic driving aside, what is clear is that the momentum remains with Hamilton going into the final race this weekend. He has the faster car and with all the steward decisions in Saudi Arabia going his way, he will claim the moral high ground. Verstappen on the other hand looked shattered on the podium and was quite negative in his post race comments.
"I'm just trying to race and this sport is more about penalties than racing, so for me this is not Formula 1. But at least the fans enjoyed it and I gave it all today, but clearly not quick enough. But still happy with second."
Unfortunately, Max may have to settle for second and watch Lewis crowned champion for an 8th time, unless he acts on the speculation building up since Saudi Arabia that he may put Lewis in the wall to decide the championship. That is what happened at Silverstone and in Budapest, to Max, where he was taken out by Mercedes drivers.
Red Bull will argue he is a hard racer, but not a dirty one, while his father Jos says "Max is how he is. Some people like it. Some people don't. He says what he thinks but he doesn't get involved in political matters, such as what is happening in other countries, like Lewis does. Max sees it as a case of doing a job as a sportsman and leaving it at that."
It may be the political driver rather than the sportsman driver who comes away from Abu Dhabi with all the plaudits, unless Red Bull can piece together the ingredients that resulted in 10 wins this year, one more time.