The Times - UK - 04.12.2021

the times | Saturday December 4 2021 2GS 17

Formula One Sport

the only red flag of the day after he

crashed heavily in the second practice

session at the blisteringly fast turn 22,

which has little run-off, handing his

Ferrari mechanics a long night to

rebuild his car, which was heavily dam-

aged. The Monégasque climbed from

his car unaided but was taken to the

medical centre for precautionary

checks, as is normal after such a heavy

BRYN LENNON/FORMULA 1/GETTY IMAGES

Leclerc’s crash

in practice at

turn 22 showed

the perils of the

superfast track

This season’s title fight has been

a duel for the ages,

complete with

collisions, angry words

and disputes over

engines.

Now, with only

two remaining

races, Lewis

Hamilton and

Max

Verstappen

must hold

their nerve

in Saudi

Arabia

and Abu

Dhabi.

What Hamilton needs to win

his eighth world title

The Mercedes driver Hamilton is

eight points behind Verstappen

and realistically has to win in

Saudi Arabia to keep control

over his championship.

A victory and the fastest lap in

Saudi Arabia for Hamilton, with

Verstappen finishing second,

would put the drivers level on

points, meaning the Briton

would simply have to better his

rival in the finale.

Verstappen will be

champion this weekend

6 If he finishes first with fastest

lap and Hamilton finishes sixth

or lower

6 If he finishes first

and Hamilton

finishes seventh or

lower

6 If he finishes

second with

fastest lap

and

Hamilton

finishes

tenth or

lower

6 If he finishes

second and

Hamilton

doesn’t score

Crunch time: the route to glory for each of the title rivals

Lewis Hamilton must win in Saudi
Arabia tomorrow to keep alive his
championship hopes, and on paper that
would seem plausible.
The Mercedes driver has been the
faster of the title protagonists recently,
winning the past two races, with Red
Bull’s Max Verstappen second. And on
the shores of the Red Sea they will race
around the fastest street circuit on the
Formula One calendar, a challenge
that would appear to favour Mercedes.
It was certainly advantage Hamilton
in Jeddah yesterday as the Mercedes
driver topped both practice sessions
and described the track as “rapid.
Unbelievably quick. Incredibly fast.”
The British driver has what his
Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff,
described as his “spicy equipment”
this weekend, in reference to
Hamilton using the engine that
was new in Brazil, where he
stormed to one of the best
victories of his career,
enjoying a superior straight-
line-speed advantage over
his title rival.
Verstappen arrived in Saudi
Arabia with an eight-point lead
over Hamilton in the champion-
ship; two races ago it was 19.
But the Red Bull driver has said
many times this season that he does not
believe in momentum and he will be
out to spoil Mercedes’s party, in the
hope of being able to throw his own.
Both men arrive in the same
position of never having driven on this
track, so there was much to learn in the
two one-hour practice sessions. Less so
in the first, which ran in daylight, but
they all took advantage of the second
60 minutes run under the floodlights,
which will also be used for qualifying
and the race itself.
Martin Brundle, the former F1 driver
who is now a Sky Sports pundit, tipped
Hamilton for this weekend, but urged
caution, given that any mistake could
be punished on a track that is unforgiv-
ing with its lack of run-off area.
“I’d rather have the speed than the
points right now,” Brundle said. “I
think, if Lewis carries on at that rate of
knots and if Valtteri [Bottas, his
Mercedes team-mate] can get involved
and have one of his on-form days, then
who knows?
“One mishap around here for Lewis,
and Max is the world champion,
because it wouldn’t be difficult [to make
a mistake] around here, that’s for sure.”
With this track a total unknown,
Brundle said he expected that the two
leading teams would not enjoy this
tricky test coming at the sharp end of
the season.
“This place will bite,” he said of the
circuit. “In a way this is brilliant towards
the end of the season. But if I was Red
Bull and Mercedes, I would be thinking:
‘I don’t need the extra jeopardy of this
place right now,’ because these guys live
off data, don’t they?
“They thrive on it and they hate
uncertainty. They want to turn up here,
having done 1,000 laps on the sim
[simulator], with the right set-up and
the right strategy and all the algorithms
and they hate anything that doesn’t
agree with that in the end.”
Verstappen can be crowned world
champion tomorrow but it will be no
easy feat and something would have to
have gone drastically wrong with
Hamilton. If the 24-year-old were to

‘Sketchy’ track adds edge to title race

win his maiden title and defeat the 36-

year-old seven-times world champion,

he insists that it will not change his life,

though it almost certainly will.

Despite the mounting intensity as F1

moved into this double-header in the

Middle East to close out one of the best

seasons in recent memory, Verstappen

has maintained that he is not affected

by the pressure and is feeling calm.

Despite so much being on the line, he

said that his approach to the weekend

would remain the same.

“Like I have done all season, there is

no change,” Verstappen said. “It’s a new

track. We have to learn the track and I

just focus on the weekend to try to be as

competitive as I can be.

“We’re very motivated. A track like

this creates new and different opportu-

nities. Hopefully it will be an exciting

weekend and I hope we are going to be

competitive but it’s a bit too early to say

at the moment. On the simulator it’s a

very fast track so [I’m] looking forward

to seeing it in real life.”

There had been some concern before

the weekend that it could

be dangerous. Charles

Leclerc brought out

impact. Brundle drove an old Williams

F1 car around the track on Thursday

night and said that it would be going too

far to describe the track as dangerous,

instead calling it “sketchy”.

“There are some areas you need to

pay a lot of respect to,” he said. “It

comes at you thick and fast. You

constantly seem to be going around a

blind wall.

“There are a couple of corners you

don’t want to crash on — 22 and 23

would be primary in that, where it’s

marginal to say the least.

“This track will reward the driver

who can carry the speed accurately and

that, for me, is the two championship

contenders, unsurprisingly. It is sketchy

in places, dangerous [is] too strong a

word, but definitely sketchy.”

As the intensity increases and all the

drivers push harder, there could well be

more cars in the barrier.

No one wants this season to end

before the final race, in Abu Dhabi next

weekend, except perhaps Verstappen,

and this track will pose yet another test

of these two extraordinary drivers in

this most brilliant of title fights.

F1’s Grenfell row, News, page 8

Race 21 Saudi Arabia,

Jeddah Corniche Circuit

Laps 50

Circuit length

6.174km

Race distance

308.45km

Tomorrow

TV Live on Sky

Sports F1 at 4pm,

race starts 5.25pm

Highlights Channel 4,

10pm

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Drivers Team Points

Constructors

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Points

M Verstappen Red Bull 351.5

L Hamilton Mercedes 343.5

V Bottas Mercedes 203

S Pérez Red Bull 190

L Norris McLaren 153

C Leclerc Ferrari 152

C Sainz Ferrari 145.5

D Ricciardo McLaren 105

Mercedes 546.5

Red Bull 541.5

Ferrari 297.5

McLaren 258

Alpine 137

AlphaTauri 112

Aston Martin 77

Williams 23

Alfa Romeo 11

DRS

zone

The final race

Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina

Circuit) Dec 12

>>>

Rebecca

Clancy

Motor Racing
Correspondent, Jeddah

Saudi Arabian

Grand Prix

Qualifying, today, 5pm

Race, tomorrow, 5.30pm

Live on Sky Sports F1