{"id":173157,"date":"2021-12-12T22:46:59","date_gmt":"2021-12-12T23:46:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=173157"},"modified":"2021-12-13T20:01:31","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T20:01:31","slug":"mercedes-boss-rages-at-final-lap-f1-fiasco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=173157","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes boss rages at final-lap F1 fiasco"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner<\/a> executed a finely crafted con job on the race director as the final two laps of the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix<\/a> ticked by.<\/p>\n

The subsequent results were a controversial Max Verstappen<\/a> victory, following a final-lap overtake of Lewis Hamilton<\/a>, and a bristling tirade from Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Hamilton appeared to be cruising to a record eighth Formula 1<\/a> title late in the 58-lap Yas Marina circuit race, but a Nicholas Latifi crash that occurred as Hamilton and Verstappen navigated the 53rd lap would throw up yet another twist in the incredible world championship fight.<\/p>\n

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Hamilton led Verstappen by a tick under 12 seconds when yellow flags were employed following Latifi's accident.<\/p>\n

And while Mercedes opted to keep Hamilton on the circuit to retain track position, Red Bull gambled with a second pit stop, switching to soft tyres on lap 54 as Hamilton dawdled behind a safety car.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"That's unbelievable, man," Sky Sports picked up Hamilton saying on team radio.<\/p>\n

The Briton was staggered at the script-flipping timeliness of Latifi's crash.<\/p>\n

For a moment it appeared that it wouldn't hijack Hamilton's pursuit of the title, with race director Michael Masi deciding on lap 56 that the five cars between the first-placed Hamilton and second-placed Verstappen were not allowed to overtake the safety car.<\/p>\n

"Yeah, of course, typical decision," Verstappen grumbled to his team.<\/p>\n

"I'm not surprised."<\/p>\n

Having to pass five cars just to have a shot at overtaking Hamilton on the final lap loomed as a near-impossible task.<\/p>\n

But a cunning Horner would work his charm.<\/p>\n

"Why aren't we getting these lapped cars out of the way?" Horner said to Masi.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Being stuck behind Lando Norris<\/a>, Fernando Alonso<\/a>, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc<\/a> and Sebastian Vettel<\/a> gave Verstappan little hope of snatching the lead come the disappearance of the safety car.<\/p>\n

But all it took was one lap \u2013 and a dose of Horner persistence \u2013 to swing Masi.<\/p>\n

"Christian, just give me a second," Masi said.<\/p>\n

"My big one is to get this incident clear."<\/p>\n

Horner continued to heckle.<\/p>\n

"We only need one 'racing' lap," he said.<\/p>\n

Masi then overturned his call on lap 57, prompting all five drivers positioned between Hamilton and Verstappen to surge past the safety car.<\/p>\n

"Michael, this isn't right," a seething Wolff said to Masi as Verstappen used the clear track to draw just about level with Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Verstappen's deficit had been wiped in an instant.<\/p>\n

\"F1<\/p>\n

From that point Hamilton realistically had no chance of staving off Verstappen on the final-lap shootout.<\/p>\n

Hamilton was on hard tyres that he had pitted for on lap 14, whereas Verstappen was on fresh softs.<\/p>\n

Hamilton was therefore powerless in his attempt to prevent a turn-five Verstappen overtake and, although the veteran made a valiant attempt to steal the lead back from the rising star on turn nine, surging in his rival's slip stream in the absence of DRS, his effort amounted to nothing.<\/p>\n

"Michael, that was so not right," Wolff said.<\/p>\n

Masi's reply was terse.<\/p>\n

"It's called a motor race," he said.<\/p>\n

"We went car racing."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The result of the "car racing" was Hamilton failing to surpass Michael Schumacher<\/a> as the most successful Formula 1 driver in history, Verstappen clinching his maiden title to the elation of a sea of orange-shirted faithfuls.<\/p>\n

The outcome might yet be overturned, with Mercedes lodging its intention to appeal against the FIA's rulings.<\/p>\n

But regardless of whether this year's world championship is on the cusp of one more twist, Horner's masterful persuasion of Masi cannot be denied.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner executed a finely crafted con job on the race director as the final two laps of the title-deciding Abu […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173157"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173157"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173159,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173157\/revisions\/173159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}