On This Day: Max Verstappen Claims First Formula 1 Title In Drama-Filled Finish

December 12, 2021 will forever be a memorable day in the minds of racing fans as it was the date of Max Verstappen claiming his first-ever Formula 1 Drivers' Championship, upending Lewis Hamilton in his dominant Mercedes machine.

The rivals entered race weekend dead even at 369.5 points after 21 races of hotly contested driving from both men that featured crashes and controversy particularly in Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Italy and in Britain.

With the winner of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix determining who comes out on top, fans had expected Verstappen and Hamilton to give no quarter to one another as the latter was gunning for his eighth overall championship and fifth consecutive.

It is worth noting that the race would also determine the Constructors' Championship as Mercedes only had a 28-point lead on Red Bull entering Abu Dhabi.

In qualifying, Verstappen again proved that he was the fastest man on the grid after recording a time of 1:22.109 while Hamilton was second at 1:22.480 and Carlos Sainz of Ferrari coming in third at 1:22.931.

Hamilton went flying past Verstappen after the race start and took control of the lead, but it was not without controversy as the Dutch driver bumped into Hamilton entering the Turn 9 hairpin which forced the latter off the road.

The race stewards then concluded that Hamilton need not give back position as he had ultimately given back any advantage he had gained since the incident.

Verstappen made his pit stop at the end of Lap 13 while Hamilton followed a lap later which allowed Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez to climb to first and hold up the British driver to allow the Dutchman to close the gap.

Hamilton eventually got past Perez at Lap 21 and it certainly looked like he would coast his way to the title, though Verstappen kept pace with him which had him admitting that "Checo (Perez) is a legend."

Then came Lap 53 of the race and the now-iconic Turn 14 crash of Nicholas Latifi's Williams car, prompting a safety car to be deployed.

Sensing an opportunity open for them, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner opted to have Verstappen dive into the pits and change into soft tires while Mercedes chief Christian "Toto" Wolff decided to keep Hamilton on track to keep him in first place.

Following the stop, Verstappen was still in second place, but he had five lapped cars in between him and his rival who was still in first place.

The lapped drivers (Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel) were initially informed that they would not be allowed to overtake as race marshals hurriedly cleaned the debris from Latifi's crash.

However, on Lap 57, race director Michael Masi gave the order that only the lapped cars standing in between Hamilton and Verstappen were allowed to unlap themselves and go ahead of the safety car.

The drama built up to a fever pitch when Verstappen, on the faster and fresher tires, was breathing down Hamilton's neck who was still wearing his hardest set of fresh tires that have degraded throughout the rest of the race.

At Turn 5, Verstappen claimed the lead over Hamilton and fans had their hearts in their throats as it appeared both men were going to bump into each other again at Turn 9.

But it would not come to pass and Verstappen clearly finished ahead of Hamilton with a 2.256 gap on his rival to claim his first-ever Drivers' Championship.

Wolff was none too pleased with Masi's decision-making to close out the race as footage of the dejected Austrian made its rounds on the internet along with his now infamous conversation with the race director.

Mercedes' consolation prize was an eighth-straight Constructors' Championship while Hamilton dropped his bid for a fifth-straight title.

Because of the controversial calls that Masi made during the closing stages of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, he was removed from his post following an FIA investigation.

For Verstappen and Red Bull, it was the start of something beautiful as he had just won his second consecutive title in 2022 while the team finally knocked off Mercedes to claim their first Constructors' Championship since 2013.