Lewis Hamilton will have to beat his rival Max Verstappen in a winner-takes-all final race in Abu Dhabi in order to retain his Formula One World Champion status.
With both drivers sat on 369.5 points, the World Championship is on a knife’s edge following arguably the most dramatic season in the sport’s history.
Both drivers are doing everything they can – sometimes to much – to be crowned champion, and race director Michael Masi has reiterated to both drivers that their actions will be under intense scrutiny in his race brief.
“To think that we are going to the last race equal on points, no one would ever have said that would have been possible with everything we’ve been faced with,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
Lewis vs Max – Duel in the Desert
The season has been tainted by plenty of argy-bargy between the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers, not least in the previous Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia, where Verstappen’s reluctance to give the lead of the race back to Hamilton after he illegally overtook off-track ended in a collision.
If the two collide and both retire from the Grand Prix, Verstappen will be crowned champion based on a superior number of race wins.
His driving has been reflective of this, forcing Hamilton wide in the last two grand prix, and forcing the stewards to take action.
In order to prevent a situation where Verstappen is deliberately overly aggressive with Hamilton, the stewards are set to discuss the drivers’ conduct with them in a meeting pre-event, and outline that improper conduct from either driver will not go unpunished.
Speaking in their press conferences earlier today, both drivers insisted they would do their level best to drive fair and prevent the title being decided in the stewards’ office.
“Hopefully we have a great race and move forwards,” said Hamilton.
“I don’t want to see the stewards any more than they see me.”
Verstappen continued, citing his unhappiness with the outcome of the previous outing.
“I don’t know about what’s coming up of course but I think already a few things that were maybe a bit controversial – but it is what it is.
“You can’t really do anything about it. We just have to focus on the positives this weekend, we want action on track.
“Of course we both want to win and it should be about that, not a controversial decision.”
Farewell, Kimi…
Whilst many people’s attention will be on the fight at the front of the field, it must not be overlooked that this is Kimi Raikkonen’s 349th and final grand prix.
Since entering the sport in 2001, Raikkonen as won 21 races, earned 103 podiums and took 18 pole positions, amassing a total of 1843 championship points and winning a World Championship title with Ferrari in 2007.
In true ‘Iceman’ fashion, when asked in his pre-race press conference if he was looking forward to his final race in Formula One, he responded simply, “I’m looking forward to when it is done.”
