'Crazy' street fight levels F1 championship: 2021 Saudi Arabian GP report

Behind, Charles Leclerc also stayed ahead of Sergio Perez, so the top five ran as they qualified, and Lando Norris moved up to sixth ahead of Esteban Ocon, Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo.

Ricciardo clearing Gasly and Antonio Giovinazzi taking tenth from Fernando Alonso was about as exciting as it got, until Mick Schumacher replicated Leclerc’s FP2 crash and ended up spinning into the barrier at Turn 22. Cue the safety car.

Most cars were past the pit entry, but at the end of the following lap both Mercedes cars came in, with Bottas having backed Verstappen up to create a gap for the double-stack. And Verstappen stayed out in a move that would soon prove crucial.

Leclerc, Perez, Norris and Alonso also stopped, but were left rueing their luck when the race was red-flagged three laps later in order to carry out barrier repairs.

Those who had stayed out got a free pit stop, and so Verstappen inherited the lead on fresh hard tyres ahead of Hamilton, Bottas, Ocon and Ricciardo. Hamilton was not happy, but there was a standing restart that offered an opportunity he immediately tried to take.

Hamilton got the better launch but Verstappen cut Turn 2 trying to hold on around the outside, with Ocon sneaking into second place on the exit as the two title rivals fought. The rest of the field only made it one further corner before Leclerc, Perez and Gasly failed to make it through Turn 3, as the Ferrari was squeezed against the wall and Perez ended up in the barrier after contact.

Behind, George Russell hit his brakes in response to the crashing Red Bull and Nikita Mazepin ploughed into the back of him at high speed, but both were fortunately unhurt.

Cue another red flag. And the start of the controversy.

FIA race director Michael Masi offered Red Bull two options: give the position back to Hamilton (and drop to third as a result) or let the stewards rule on the restart incident. Red Bull took the former option and put medium tyres on Verstappen’s car, but despite not getting as good a restart as Ocon and Hamilton on the front row, Verstappen still sent it down the inside into Turn 1 to take the lead.

“It really wasn’t clear. There were two scenarios, one it wasn’t clear and two I didn’t get the information. Then it became apparent that he was trying to let me past, which I guess he had been asked to do, but before the DRS zone. That meant he would’ve DRS’d back past, follow me through the last corner and then DRS me into Turn 1.

“So that was a tactic. But the worst part was just the steep, heavy braking that then happened at one point, which is when we collided. That was the dangerous part.”

Verstappen accelerated away and was hit with a five-second time penalty for the Turn 1 incident as he hadn’t given the place up, something he was left angry at. But Hamilton would soon close in and the Red Bull again yielded at the same place, this time without contact.

“[The race was] confusing!” said Verstappen. “Third, starting first. Dropped to third, third to first, five second penalty, second, finished second, touches, yeah, I don’t know. 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.”

Hamilton already held the fastest lap but kept pushing and secured it despite his broken front wing, with bits falling off his endplate in the closing stages. At that point, a puncture could have handed Verstappen the title, but instead maximum points for the defending champion after over two hours of racing leaves them level on points ahead of Abu Dhabi.

“It’s definitely an incredibly tense year and time,” Hamilton said. “I’ve raced for 28 years, I’ve had so many intense battles through karting, through single-seaters and this is one of them. Of course this is the pinnacle of the sport so everything is heightened, everything is at the absolute max and so much weighs on it. It’s great for the sport, great for the fans, they’re enjoying it more than ever, I’m enjoying it as a racing driver.”

Before being handed a ten-second time penalty for causing the collision with Hamilton before the final corner, Verstappen had similar sentiments.

“I find it interesting that I am the one who gets the penalty when both of us run out of the white lines,” Verstappen said.“In Brazil it was fine and now suddenly I get a penalty for it. Well you could clearly see both didn’t make the corner. It’s fine, I don’t spend too much time on it, we move forward.

“We are equal on points and that’s exciting for the whole championship and F1 in general. But lately we are talking more about white lines and penalties than actually proper Formula 1 racing and that’s a little bit of a shame.”

But the drama didn’t end there. Bottas had locked up massively on one of the restarts and dropped to fifth, and took his time clearing Ricciardo before honing in on Ocon. The Alpine driver looked to have held on for a hard-fought podium but Bottas played an excellent tactical final lap to get close out of the final corner and win a drag race by 0.1sec at the line.

“Definitely it was an exciting finish, it was really close,” Bottas said. “To be honest, it was harder to get by him today than I thought it would be. He was driving pretty good today and was actually quite fast, and, also, before that, I was stuck behind Daniel for a long time, which made me consume my tyres quite a lot.

“Actually, my front right tyre was pretty finished and that make it more tricky. Once I dropped down to P5 at the final start, I knew it was all going to be about being patient to eventually getting there when it would, eventually, be possible. It was a bit closer than I thought, but I made it!”

Ocon was left close to tears by seeing such an impressive result slip away, having been surprised by how aggressive both Hamilton and Verstappen were with him on the race restart. But he still kept Ricciardo comfortably at bay, with Gasly rounding out the top six after staying out of trouble.

Leclerc took seventh from his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz on the final lap, while Giovinazzi and Norris rounded out the points, with the McLaren driver rueing the first red flag stoppage.

But with the greatest respect, they’re all footnotes in an incredible race at the end of an incredible season. And now we’ve got to decide who comes out on top once and for all next weekend in Abu Dhabi.