Tied Before Abu Dhabi, Settled on One Lap

Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton arrived at the final race level on points, and a disputed safety car restart gave Verstappen his first title.

Two drivers arrived at the last race of 2021 with exactly the same number of points, a tidiness championships rarely manage. Across twenty two Grands Prix, from Bahrain on the 28th of March to Abu Dhabi on the 12th of December, Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton passed the lead back and forth. The rules were shifting too: a budget cap of 145 million dollars a year, a first trial of sprint qualifying at three events, and the return of Aston Martin as a constructor.

Hamilton won the opener, but victory at Monaco put Verstappen on top for the first time, and he won four of the five races from there to Austria. The rivalry turned physical at Silverstone, where they touched at high speed on the opening lap and Verstappen went into the barrier; Hamilton served a ten second penalty and still won. At Monza they collided again and both retired, leaving Daniel Ricciardo to give McLaren its first win since 2012. Esteban Ocon won a chaotic Hungarian race for Alpine, and in Belgium heavy rain allowed only a few laps, the shortest race in the sport's history, worth half points and very little else.

Verstappen won at Zandvoort, where the Dutch Grand Prix returned after 36 years, and Hamilton took the hundredth win of his career in Russia. Verstappen then won in Austin and Mexico City, and Hamilton replied with three in a row in Brazil, Qatar and the first Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Twenty one races had produced a draw.

Hamilton led most of the finale until Nicholas Latifi crashed with seven laps left and the safety car came out. Red Bull gave Verstappen fresh soft tires; Hamilton stayed out. Race director Michael Masi let only the lapped cars between the two leaders unlap themselves and restarted the race for a single lap, on which Verstappen passed Hamilton to win the race and the title, 395.5 points to 387.5. Mercedes lodged two protests, both were dismissed, and the team later withdrew its appeal. An FIA report found that the safety car had been called in without completing the lap the rules required, but declared the result valid and final, and Masi was removed as race director.

Verstappen became the first champion from the Netherlands and the first since 2013 who did not drive a Mercedes. He had won ten races to Hamilton's eight. Mercedes still took an eighth straight constructors' title, and Kimi Räikkönen's Formula One career came to an end.

The calendar

• Bahrain Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen
• Portuguese Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Spanish Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Monaco Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen
• Azerbaijan Grand Prix, won by Sergio Pérez
• French Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen
• Styrian Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen
• Austrian Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen
• British Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Hungarian Grand Prix, won by Esteban Ocon
• Belgian Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen
• Dutch Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen
• Italian Grand Prix, won by Daniel Ricciardo
• Russian Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Turkish Grand Prix, won by Valtteri Bottas
• United States Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen
• Mexico City Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen
• São Paulo Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Qatar Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, won by Lewis Hamilton
• Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, won by Max Verstappen