Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton wins amid crashes and controversy at Jeddah circuit

Mercedes basked under the floodlights of the Jeddah Corniche Circuit as Lewis Hamilton bagged the podium at the inaugural yet hugely controversial Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The result means that the drivers' championship would be decided in Abu Dhabi, which will host the season's final race. Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas came third. Verstappen and Hamilton are now tied on points.
 
Before the race, Hamilton was eight points shy of the title frontrunner Verstappen. With the Mercedes cars occupying the front row in the practice runs and the qualifying round, Verstappen needed to throw in all his experience and Red Bull Honda to back him up with a strategy to emerge on top on Sunday. But even before the lights turned green on Sunday, everyone knew that the track itself could throw a curveball. The probability of the safety car making an appearance or two at the narrow, high-speed street circuit was very high. And that is exactly what happened on race day on Sunday.
 
On lap 14, Mick Schumacher was the first to put his car in the crash barrier on turn 23. With the safety car out, Red Bull decided to gamble and keep Verstappen out while others, including race leader Hamilton, pitted for a switch to the hard compound tires. And then the gamble paid off when the FIA red-flagged the race to repair the crash barriers. That decision allowed Red Bull to bring Verstappen for a tire change.

The restart was even more chaotic. Controversy erupted at the end of turn 1 when Verstappen went on top of the kerbs while overtaking Hamilton and rejoined ahead of the British driver. Taking advantage of the tussle between the two, Alpine's Esteban Ocon overtook Hamilton and positioned himself between them. But behind them, mayhem was unfolding. First, Red Bull's Sergio Perez was clipped by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, and then the other Haas of Nikita Mazepin rear-ended the Williams George Russell. Perez, Mazepin and Russell brought the race to yet another red flag. 

The drama continued in the pit lane as the Race Director Michael Masi suggested that Red Bull return the pole position to Hamilton for having overtaken the latter over the kerbs. Red Bull Team Director Christian Horner reluctantly agreed to the suggestion but realised that Verstappen would need to start behind the Alpine of Ocon.

When the race restarted for the third time on Sunday evening, Vesappen took the inside lane and outmanoeuvred both Hamilton and Ocon to lead the race. It was only a matter of time before Hamilton powered his way through the Alpine, and the battle that fans had witnessed multiple times this season resumed. The virtual safety car rolled out on lap 23 when Alpha Tauri's Yuki Tsunoda lost his car's front wing while pushing off Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel; in the process, he also picked up a five-second time penalty for causing the incident. 

The race never really got going as cars kept ramming into each other on the narrow street track. A collision between Vettel and Alfa Romeo's Kimi Raikkonen, who is retiring at the end of the season, saw the track littered with debris. 

Lap 37 saw the title contenders side by side at the end of turn 1. There was contact between the two cars. Verstappen once again found himself on the kerb and managed to keep his car ahead. But the stewards took note of the incident and handed the race lead back to Hamilton. And then, perhaps, the most controversial collision of the entire season took place. Verstappen, who had been instructed by the team to hand over the position to Hamilton, slowed down his car, and it seemed as if Hamilton was caught off-guard by the drop in the pace of the car ahead and clipped his front wing on the Red Bull's right tire. 

Nevertheless, Verstappen did eventually return the position to Hamilton and dropped off the pace to nurse his tires to the chequered flag. Hamilton, meanwhile, also picked up an additional point for the fastest lap.  Hamilton and Verstappen are now tied at 369.5 points, but the last word on the Jeddah circuit battle is yet to be spoken.

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• Abu Dhabi
• Jeddah Corniche Circuit
• Jeddah circuit
• Lewis Hamilton
• Max Verstappen
• Mercedes
• Red Bull
• Red Bull Racing Honda
• Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
• Valtteri Bottas
• controversy
• drivers' championship
• f1 race
• f1 raceday
• jeddah time
• safety car
• saudi arabia gp
• saudi arabian gp
• saudi gp
• saudi grand prix
• virtual safety car