Max Verstappen Crowned 2021 F1 World Champion

After losing the lead at the start of the race, Max Verstappen overcame a deficit of more than 10 seconds to Lewis Hamilton to claim his maiden F1 world title. And denying Hamilton his record-breaking 8th world title. Hamilton was caught on the back foot when Nicholas Latifi crashed 5 laps before the end of the race which triggered a safety car that enabled Verstappen to get a free pitstop for soft tyres. Mercedes decided to not pit Hamilton in order to maintain track position but Hamilton was on very old and worn hard tyres. In a controversial move. it had been decided that the lapped cars wouldn't be allowed to overtake at the restart but that decision was changed in favour of ending the race with the cars racing. Verstappen immediately overtook Hamilton when the safety car came in, which was the last lap of the race and he went on to cross the chequered flag first. The controversial decision did see protests from Mercedes but the stewards dismissed the same. Mercedes has now appealed to a higher court over the stewards' decision.