The Decider in the Desert. It's only live once. Channel 4 stumped up a few million to broadcast the whole race live. Sky spent the big bucks getting Rosberg, Button, Hill plus Brundle. All the coverage was on Verstappen and Hamilton, not even much on Horner and Wolff or Red Bull and Mercedes. It was more like a boxing match than a race. Norris in third was briefly touched upon. If the championship had been decided the week before, it would have been all about Raikkonen (and Giovinazzi) leaving Formula 1 and Bottas' and Russell's last race for their current teams. Raikkonen was wearing a throw-back helmet from his McLaren years. Giovinazzi was wearing a throw-back helmet from Raikkonen's Ferrari years. Which speaks volumes about his F1 career.
Bottas gave Hamilton a hug after the anthem. Norris said he was "going to go for it". Not sure for what. Lando, someone has to be third. Disappearing into nowhere, we found that Mazepin wouldn't be taking part in the race, having tested positive for Covid.
Norris lost "it" at start and several places, running wide. It was not to be his best race. Everyone will be hoping that McLaren come back stronger next year.
The start was clean, with Hamilton taking the lead from second. Then the gloves came off at Turn 9 with Verstappen pushing hard and Hamilton running off. Initially it looked like Hamilton would have to give the place back. However, Mercedes believed that Hamilton hadn't gained a lasting advantage. They had touched briefly and it was unclear whether this would have a lasting impact. The stewards made a quick decision: no investigation necessary. Blood boiled around the world.
On to lap 14, Verstappens gambles and pits to put on hard tires, that they've never run before. It was predicted to be his one and only stop.
Six laps later, Perez did what he could as the team mate with the most to offer. There was a tremendous battle (all thoughts of Tsunoda or Alonso defence gone) with the lead going back and forth between himself and Hamilton. When Verstappen caught them up, Perez was called a "legend" and an "absolute animal".
Raikkonen went rallying with a slide, spin and tapping the wall. He got it back to the pits but had to turn the engine off on his final race. The footage from his pit was longest we've been off-track in a very long time. Whilst he was retiring, Russell lost power in his Williams and came back to the pits via the run offs and also retired.
The dice was rolled again when Giovinazzi retired his Alfa Romeo at the corner of turn 9 and a Virtual Safety Car was called. Hamilton did not come in to pit and both Red Bulls did for fresh tires. They had nothing to lose as they were not in the lead of the drivers or constructors championships.
We got to enjoy a lot of helmet cam - during the race, this time installed in LeClerc's hat, particularly during his battle with Bottas and in the pit exit, which looked very scary, tighter than a 70s concrete car park.
It looked like it was game over for the Red Bull camp. Horner said, "we will need a miracle in these last 10 laps". Then came a slow puncture and a pit stop for Norris, caused by the curbs. His mum and dad, who were at the race, are clearly not a good luck charm for him. Hamilton was then warned to keep off the curbs, just in case. Would this be the miracle? No.
With 5 laps to go, Latifi put his Williams into the barriers and across the track as the consequence of another championship decided by a Schumacher smash. Just as the safety car was called, Verstappen came in for tires and Hamilton was told to stay out. There was one long swear over the radio from Hamilton. He would have lost track position if he came in. Now the audience waited on tenterhooks to see if there would be any more racing, with Max starting on fresh tires right behind Lewis or would the race (and championship) conclude behind the safety car?
Perez came into the pits for a fourth time, giving Sainz a podium. No reason given but it sounded pretty urgent.
Then the miracle came, the lapped cars were not going to be allowed to unlap themselves, which played right into Hamilton's hands. Then Masi made a decision, the cars in between Hamilton and Verstappen would be allowed past and the safety car was to end straight away. Hamilton backed the pack right up, almost trying to force Verstappen to overtake him, which would result in a penalty for Max. The Dutchman pushed him all the way to the line and got past. Yes, it was aggressive. Yes, it was hard racing. The last lap was exquisite racing, literally edge-of-the-seat But it was the race of a champion and a champion he is.
Hamilton looked very lonely heading to the podium. Everyone was Max's pal, they're all more like his age. Then Vettel and Schumacher came over to give him a hug. Having had a bit of Angie-time, Lewis approached Max and congratulated him. Max then praised Perez as such a supportive team mate, which is more than Lewis had this year. Verstappen made a very eloquent speech after the podium about how you hope for points, podiums, wins but you hope when they play the anthem it's for you.
Mercedes made two protests, both of which were rejected by the stewards. Masi: "Toto, that's called motor racing." Michael Masi has become the Alistair Campbell of F1, he shouldn't be the story but he is. In the end, he did allow the drivers to race.
On to final thoughts...Vettel, Alonso and Raikkonen were the drivers who had made the most overtakes this season. Experience over car performance. Alex Albon was seen talking to Geri Horner in front of the podium; does he know about her previous career? It's a sign of how popular he is amongst F1 fans world wide as Raikkonen was named Driver of the Day, decided by a phone-in.
Predictions for the future? Many many Angry Toto memes. Possible court action. Mass Covid outbreak in the F1 community as a result of a lot of hugging post-race. There will be a squad of children in a third world country all wearing Hamilton 2021 championship winner T-shirts.
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