Explained | What led to Max Verstappen’s win at Sunday’s Abu Dhabi GP?
The HinduGoing into the final race of the 2021 Formula One World Championship in Abu Dhabi, two drivers, Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, were tied on 369.5 points in the fight for the drivers’ title. Usually, before racing resumes, race control allows lapped cars — cars that are a lap down to the ladders — to unlap themselves by overtaking the safety car and join the queue behind. Suddenly on lap 57, the race director allowed five cars between Hamilton and Verstappen alone to unlap themselves and gave the message “safety car in this lap” allowing one lap of racing. According to the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile F1 Sporting Regulations, Article 48.12, “any cars that have been lapped by the leader will be required to pass the cars on the lead lap and the safety car.” The regulation also states, “Once the last lapped car has passed the leader, the safety car will return to the pits at the end of the following lap.” This meant all cars, and not only five, should have been allowed to unlap the leader and also that safety car could have come in only on the following lap i.e. In their verdict, the stewards said, “That although Article 48.12 may not have been applied fully, in relation to the safety car returning to the pits at the end of the following lap, Article 48.13 overrides that and once the message “safety car in this lap” has been displayed, it is mandatory to withdraw the safety car at the end of that lap” Moreover, the Race Director argued that teams agreed that it was “highly desirable for the race to end in a ‘green’ condition” meaning not behind the safety car.