The 2021 Formula 1 season has come to a sensational and somewhat controversial climax, and to attempt to do the action justice we offer our 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result Review Summary.
Our review covers what happened in the race so you don’t have to in the laps that matter. Plus we throw in our Race Ratings, the Best (Great) and Worst (Grape) drivers of the race weekend.
The perfect bite sized review for those who are interested yet couldn’t be bothered.
The 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result Review + Great and Grape gives you just enough to catch up, and stand by for our Power Rankings which highlight our driver of the season so far.
2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result Race – THE LAPS THAT MATTERED
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Well here are the top laps where stuff happened. Normally it is five or ten, so you know it was a good race if there’s more than ten.
We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Lap 1 – Lewis Hamilton outdrags Max Verstappen off the line and is a clear winner into the first corner, and the predicted first corner didn’t happen. But hang on, Max Verstappen dives into the lead into the corner on the back straight, Lewis Hamilton runs wide and stays in front, but he will have to give the place back. Will he? He doesn’t by the end of the first lap. Was Max’s move on. The stewards rule a lap later that no further action is being taken. Previous was the turn 4 incident in Brazil, so…
Further back Lando Norris did run wide at turn one, and Sergio Perez was the big winner. Biggest loser from the start among the front runners is Valtteri Nottas who drops as low as 8th and providing zero help for his team mate.
ORDER – HAM VER PER SAI NOR LEC TSU BOT OCO RIC
Lap 4 – The next few laps are dominated by radio coverage between Red Bull and the FIA discussing the first lap incident. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton is 1.5 second up the road and looking solid. In fairness, the lap one incident was a case of Max Verstappen taking his chances knowing Lewis would need to avoid contact.
Lap 7 – Lewis Hamilton is nearly two seconds in front now, so well out of DRS zone, and on the better tyres. So advantage him and Mercedes. Perez is a further three seconds behind Verstappen in third. Best of the rest is Carlos Sainz more than eight seconds further back. While we’re at it let’s talk about the track changes. They have certainly made the track faster but not much overtaking action yet. Well what they’re showing in the coverage. An internal battle between the Aston Martion drivers aside.
Lap 9 – Max Verstappen radios to his team advising his soft tyres are on the turn. Ouch. A a pit stop will put him right in the middle of the midfield pack. Hamilton is on the mediums and can pit much later, and probably in clean air.
Lap 11 – Bloody hell, Lewis is four seconds in front now, and Max will need to pit soon or lose too much time. Otherwise, bugger all happening on a track which still sucks for F1 racing. Why can’t the finale go back to a proper racing track like Brazil.
ORDER – HAM VER PER SAI NOR LEC TSU BOT OCO RIC
Lap 14 – Max Verstappen pits for new tyres from second. Softs off, hard on, which sounds way too sexual for an F1 race. Verstappen comes out behind Lando Norris who he easily overtakes for fourth as Norris is on the same shit soft tyres. Charles Leclerc is scared off the track by Verstappen rejoining. The Ferrari driver loses out to Alpha Tauri driver Yuki Tsunoda, who is impressing by driving a solid race so far in sixth.
Lap 15 – Lewis Hamilton pits for hard tyres too the very next lap. He comes out in front of Carlos Sainz and is second. This leaves Sergio Perez in front who could be the race’s wildcard and saviour for some title action. Hamilton is six second and one car in between in front of Max Verstappen.
Lap 16 – Big moment for Max Verstappen who slides wide on the second last corner at plenty km/h. He remains behind Carlos Sainz which is costing him time to Lewis.
Lap 18 – Max Verstappen gets past Carlos Sainz for third down the back straight. Sainz made it pretty easy. He can smell a podium if it goes pear shaped in front. FYI the gap between Hamilton and leader Perez is just two seconds. And it is 7-ish seconds from Lewis to Max.
Lap 20 – WOW. Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez exchange the lead four times from the back straight to the hotel section in a sensational battle. Perez remains in front expertly through the slow section and into the first half of the next lap. His selfless team tactics allows his title chasing team mate to rapidly close in on Hamilton.
Lap 21 – Hamilton does get past Perez into the back straight, but Verstappen is just a few second behind now and the title race is on, as surely Perez will give his second over to Max, which happens when Perez pits for new tyres. He comes out fifth for the record from that pitstop. But this now leaves the race as we wanted it. Straight fight between the best drivers from the best teams.
Lap 23 – Lewis starts pulling away from Verstappen by a few tenths a lap. Tsunoda pits from third for those in the market for an Alpha Tauri update.
ORDER – HAM VER BOT PER ALO GAS SAI NOR LEC TSU
Lap 27 – Kimi Raikkonen’s F1 career looks to be over with brake failure and a slide into the back straight barriers. What a shame a great career ends like this. George Russell looks to be out too. He has better places to go next season, but safe to say his second half of the 2021 has been underwhelming. Which makes him perfect to replace Valtteri Nottas.
Lap 30 – Just ticked over halfway, and Lewis Hamilton is leading Max Verstappen by 4.2 seconds. Bottas v Perez in third/fourth are only a second or so apart but 24 seconds behind Verstappen.
Lap 31 – Nottas does something interesting by pitting for new tyres. Less interesting is he rejoins in 9th behind Charles Leclerc.
Lap 36 – Giovinazzzi retires leaving his car in a precarious situation. It’s probably his last race in F1 too for a very different reason to his team mate. This mean VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR. It may be just what this race needs.
Lap 37 – This leads to pit stops-a-plenty including both Red Bulls. This leads to an interesting point in the race for the title front runners. Does Hamilton pit now? If he doesn’t he’ll be on older tyres. Max can charge on new rubber.
Lap 38 – Virtual Safety Car ends. Game on now. The Red Bull, with 20 laps to go, is 16 seconds behind. Lewis’ tyres are 23 laps old v new tyres for Max. Woof, here is the ending to the season wee were all hoping to sample. All thanks to a broken down Alfa Romeo.
ORDER – HAM VER PER SAI NOR BOT TSU ALO GAS OCO
Lap 39 – Hamilton – Verstappen gap 15.9 seconds…….
Lap 41 – Hamilton – Verstappen gap 14.8 seconds……. Sorry unless there’s a great overtaking move or a prang, there’s no F—ks given at this stage for the rest of the field.
Lap 43 – Hamilton – Verstappen gap 14.1 seconds…….This is going to take the drive of a multi, multi World Champion to hold on here.
Lap 44 – Hamilton – Verstappen gap 13.7 seconds…….Back Markers and lost time looming for Lewis.
Lap 46 – Hamilton – Verstappen gap 13.4 seconds…….There’s an Alpha Tauri and a Fernando Alonso ahead in the midfield bunch. One team bound to help Red Bull the other a driver who has no love for Hamilton.
Lap 47 – Hamilton – Verstappen gap 13.2 seconds…..Verstappen just not closing quick enough. For now. Those Mercedes tyres have a lot more laps in them.
Lap 48 – Hamilton – Verstappen gap 11.2 seconds….Ten laps to go. And Lewis has made it through the bunch of four midfielders. Max yet to do so. And one of those was Alonso who would never have made it easy.
Lap 49 – Lando Norris pits with a puncture….This could be a worry for those on older tyres….Surely not. Surely Nottas. Mercedes on the radio to Lewis to tell him to take it easy around the last few corners of the lap.
Lap 51 – Hamilton – Verstappen gap 10.9 seconds…Verstappen yet to clear the four car train. This is advantage Hamilton for now. But those old tyres….
Lap 52 – Hamilton – Verstappen gap 11.9 seconds…Verstappen just gets past Ricciardo in whatever disappointing position the Australian is in.
Lap 54 – SAFETY CAR – Just when this race was meandering into boredom Latifi crashes into turn 14 which brings out the safety car. Verstappen pits for tyres, Lewis Hamilton is not in the correct track position to match that. He would have lost first place to Verstappen if he pit. So Lewis will be on his old, old tyres, and Max will be on his new, new tyres. But, and it is a big but, will there be another racing lap. The Latifi crash has left a lot of crap over the road, so it will take a while to clean up. So there may not be another lap. But maybe there will. If there is, WOW. May be a one lap dash to decide the 2021 World Championship.
Lap 55 – Safety Car still out there. This race is over.
Lap 56 – Safety Car still out there, BUT, lapped cars are not allowed to overtake…..If they were we would have a grandstand finish. This certainly won’t help a perceived bias towards Mercedes according to Red Bull. And they may well be right.
Lap 57 – Hold the Phone. Lapped cars allowed to overtake now. Just as the Safety Car goes into the pits….. What? What have the stewards done here. All of a sudden they have opened up the race when before it was all over. Why, do the F bosses need the thrilling ending for their Netflix show? Whatever the reason, here it is. One lap of racing to go…..Head to Head. Wow. Max is right on Lewis Hamilton’s tail.
Lap 58 – WOW, WOW and WOW. Lewis Hamilton holds off Max Verstappen into the first corner but is right on Lewis’ tail. The two drivers go into the newly created hairpin and the Red Bull gets past the Mercedes. Hamilton attempts to get past on the back straights but after more weaving than a knitting convention the Red Bull stays in front. Lewis Hamilton continues to attack down the next straight, but Verstappen stays in front. And powers to victory and a first World Championship.
Unbelievable Jeff….. Without the Latifi crash Verstappen looked so unlikely to win. Without the track position as the Safety Car is called and Lewis has no chance to pit without losing position, he has no chance. After the stewards said lapped cars couldn’t overtake with a lap to go, he had no chance. No chance. Then the stewards intervened and allowed the cars to unlap themselves and this race exploded into action. So much luck, but fortune does, and has this time, favoured the brave. Even if Lewis Hamilton was the better driver on the day.
You get the feeling tis may not be over. Mercedes may have some justification.
After a season of clashes, this is exactly how the season was probably going to end. in controversy. And after some wishy-washy FIA / Stewards decision making.
That’s not to say that Max Verstappen doesn’t deserve to win the 2021 title. He certainly does, and all power to him. You could argue his car wasn’t the out and out fastest. But sometimes his tactics were hard to swallow.
And, at the end of the day, it came down to a racer winning the title on the last lap.
But that hasn’t stopped a potential protest by Mercedes.
What else can you / could you expect from this 2021 season.
FINAL ORDER – VER HAM SAI TSU GAS BOT NOR ALO OCO LEC
2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result – RACE RATING
We rate the big race itself so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 10/10
A title deciding final race pf the season. Yep, as season defining as you get.
ON TRACK ACTION – 5 /10
The Hamilton-Perez battle is worth three points by itself. What shame there’s bugger all other points to hand out, as Abu Dhabi produces another reasonably crap race for on track action. Like a bad business rebrand, you’re stuck with it through stubbornness due to the amount of money invested.
But don’t let the ending fool you. It’s a shit track for F1 racing.
ENDING 10 / 10
A nail biting will Max Verstappen on new tyres catch Lewis Hamilton on old tyres for the Championship? Then came the Latifi crash and the safety car. Then the stewards saying cars couldn’t unlap themselves. Then the late decision to allow it. Then the last lap overtake…..What more do you need?
OVERALL RATING 25 / 30
So much to take in here, we hope the above summary does it some justice. As a race it wasn’t much more than a beginning and an end, but the story will last a decade,
2021 SEASON RACE RANKINGS
Bahrain GP – 25/30
Emilia-Romagna GP – 17/30
Portuguese GP – 11/30
Spanish GP – 18/30
Monaco GP – 12/30
Azerbaijan GP – 23/30
French GP – 22/30
Styrian GP – 12/30
Austrian GP – 20/30
British GP – 22/30
Hungarian GP – 26/30
Belgian GP – 0/30
Dutch GP – 12/30
Italian GP – 25/30
Russian GP – 26/30
Turkish GP – 13/30
US GP – 21/30
Mexican GP – 22/30
Brazilian GP – 21/30
Qatar GP – 19/30
Saudi Arabia GP – 26/30
2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result – Great & Grape
Here we go through the field and highlight the three drivers we think deserve a little extra love, and one driver whose had the grapest weekend of all.
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. Five points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 / -2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
It used to be called the good, bad and ugly, but everyone is using that now. And who doesn’t like grapes.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Wins the World Championship with a bold, bold move on the final racing lap. Although he has been outstanding this season, and has won our Driver of the Season with a few races to go, he got lucky on the day, but was also brave with that last lap pass. And shouldn’t bravery be rewarded? As long as it’s fair. Which it was today.
THE GREAT – LEWIS HAMILTON
Deserved to win the race and therefore the Championship, but events went against him today. The way he was holding off Max Verstappen at the end despite tyres which were 23 laps older was sensational and a window into his greatness. His sportsmanship in defeat was certainly a breath of fresh air in a Championship battle which seemed to get nasty.
THE GREAT – CARLOS SAINZ
OK, so it’s easy to pick the top three, but how can your argue that Sainz’s result isn’t worthy of a great tag. Best of the rest.
THE GREAT – YUKI TSUNODA
The Japanese driver has finished bottom of our driver of the race on many occasions this season, so a fourth place to end the season is a super result.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
PIERRE GASLY – Arguably the third best driver this season finished the season off with another strong result. If he can turn grid position into decent race start next season he will be a real threat for third overall in the championship.
SERGIO PEREZ – Played the ultimate team man game, and his battle with Lewis Hamilton was some superb racing. A retirement not what he deserved, but earned plenty of respect from the Red Bull team which has sacked many a driver in recent seasons.
FERNANDO ALONSO – His comeback is vindicated with a final points finish and ahead of his team mate.
KIMI RAIKKONEN – A forgettable race of a forgettable season in a pretty crap car, but we love Kimi and will miss him.
THE GRAPE-EST – VALTTERI NOTTAS
Little was expected from Valtteri Nottas and he certainly delivered on race day. While his equivalent Sergio Perez credit with his team for helping out his team mate, Bottas didn’t do much at all. Again. The Alfa Romeo drive and obscurity awaits. More so.
DIS-HONOURABLE MENTIONS
NIKITA MAZEPIN – For testing positive for Covid and not taking part in the race.
DANIEL RICCIARDO – Another weekend that ended in underwhelming qualifying and no points.
NICHOLAS LATIFI – For causing the Championship defining moment through crashing.
MICK SCHUMACHER – For causing the Championship defining moment through crashing.
2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result – Power Rankings
Normally we have a whole new article for the Power Rankings, but that is coming for our 2021 Driver of the Season review.
But here are the Driver of the Race ratings for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. And like the race it was close between the top two drivers and ended up in Max Verstappen’s favour.
