It was Hamilton’s race, says Narain
New Delhi, Dec. 13: The controversial end to an epic Formula One title fight in the 2021 season has not gone down well with India’s first F1 driver Narain Karthikeyan.
A series of questionable race control calls were made at the season finale in Abu Dhabi on Sunday when Max Verstappen passed Lewis Hamilton on the final lap to win his maiden title and deny the Briton a record-breaking eighth crown.
“How the entire situation unfolded, it seemed like they wanted Max to win. It was a great battle for the championship but what happened yesterday it wasn’t sport. You need close battles in Formula 1 but it has to be fair at the same time,” Karthikeyan said.
Hamilton was cruising to victory when Nicholas Latifi’s crash on lap 53 of the 58-lap race brought the safety car on to the track.
In a last throw of dice, Red Bull pitted Verstappen for soft tyres after the safety car was deployed while Hamilton stayed out on his worn out hard tyres.
In what could go down as the most controversial call of the Formula 1 decade, race director Michael Masi allowed five backmarkers to unlap themselves on the penultimate lap, making it much easier for Verstappen to make the move on Hamilton.
As per the rules, the safety car should have gone back on the following lap which was the last lap of the race.
“Unless the clerk of the course considers the presence of the safety car is still necessary, once the last lapped car has passed the leader the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap,” the rule states.
“If you leave all the controversy aside, Lewis surely deserved to win if you look at the race in general. It was definitely his race. So not a fair result,” Karthikeyan added. — “Wow. What an incredible ending of a Formule 1 season to remember forevear! Two fantastic teams going all in for the win but there can only be one winner. A true champion replaced by another true champion. Congrats to @Max33Verstappen. You made us proud.”
— Robin Van Persie, former
Netherlands footballer
“The sport needed a new world champion and I think it was well done in the end, Max Verstappen has driven very well the whole season.”
— Jackie Stewart, threetime former world champion
“It’s going to be commented in terms of rule about safety car. I can understand they (Mercedes) are not going to be happy about that. It was exceptional for the show. Always going to be controversial. I try to feel the happiness for Max and the sadness for Lewis.” — Alain Prost, four-time
world champion
“A lot of not very happy people. And a lot of very happy people. This is a new way of running the sport where the Race Director can make these ad hoc decisions. It’s been a bit too ‘guess what I’m going to do now’, I think.”
— Damon Hill, 1996 world
champion “1 ball 6 required and guess what, Max Verstappen hits it. Unbelievable win.”
— Rohit Sharma, India
cricketer