Why Mercedes Is Protesting F1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Result, Verstappen's Championship

After 22 different races, nine months, all around the world, it came down to just one lap.

Just one lap.

How on earth did we get to this point?

Well, Lewis Hamilton largely dominated the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in which he grabbed the lead from Max Verstappen into Turn 1, and then remained ahead after Verstappen launched up the inside into Turn 6.

It looked set to be swinging Hamilton’s way—and then Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashed through Turn 13 with five laps left to run. That brought out the Safety Car and Verstappen dived into the pits for fresh Soft tyres while Hamilton stayed out on his old Hard rubber.

In between Hamilton and Verstappen were five lapped cars and as Latifi’s wreckage was craned away arguments continued between officials and team representatives over the situation. Initially Race Control gave the message that lapped cars would not be allowed to overtake but then determined that the five cars in between Hamilton and Verstappen— rather than all eight who had been lapped—were to overtake the Safety Car.