Thank you, Max. Thank you, Lewis.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton arrived at the Yas Marina Circuit with the aim of making history. The young Dutchman could become the first driver from his country to win a Formula 1 World Championship and the Englishman had it in his hands to become the most successful driver in the sport. History awaited them, the fans, eager to see the outcome, looked back on what has been one of the best seasons in Formula 1 history - the 2008 campaign is not to say the best. Only one could claim victory and it looked like it would be the man at the controls of the Mercedes again, at least until lap 53.
"We can only hope for a miracle," said Christian Horner on the Red Bull wall. And it did come. Nicholas Latifi has earned a small place in the hearts of the Dutch fans by triggering a safety car that changed the course of history. With five laps to go, the Canadian driver lost control of his Williams and ended up in the wall, causing the safety car to come out. At that moment, the Austrian team's idea was clear: to do the opposite strategy to Hamilton's. If the Englishman went in for a tyre change, he would have to change tyres. If the Englishman went in to change tyres, Max would be out, if Lewis did, Verstappen would put on new tyres and play all the work on one card, as it finally was.
Red Bull engineers stopped "Mad Max" to fit a soft tyre and try to overtake the then eighth world champion. The fear - which caused Mercedes not to stop Hamilton - was that the race would not be restarted due to the short time they had to remove the car and the carbon fibre debris left on the track after Latifi's crash. While Mercedes was praying for the race not to be restarted, Red Bull was praying for the slightest chance of a last-ditch attack.
In the midst of the controversy over the splitting of the lapped cars, the possible overtaking of Verstappen under safety car - all appealed by Mercedes and rejected by the FIA, although the British team has already announced that it will file appeals - the safety car left the circuit to leave an epic last lap. A one-lap race that would decide the most exciting World Championship in living memory since Mercedes' undisputed reign during the hybrid era began. Max versus Lewis, but the former, on freshly laid soft tyres, had a big advantage.
The FIA instructed Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso - who finished 8th - Esteban Ocon, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel to overtake the safety car so as not to hinder the final battle that this thrilling championship deserved. As the five drivers left the protagonists behind, Verstappen began to show the nose to Hamilton, who slowed his pace until the final tug that began two corners before the main straight. There was no DRS, just one lap where a World Championship title was at stake and where a fight was expected which, to everyone's surprise and unlike what we have been used to all season, was clean and beautiful.
As the final six kilometres of the race began, it was clear that Yas Marina didn't offer many overtaking options, but if there was one small option, it was turn five. And that's where the miracle Christian Horner spoke of culminated. Max Verstappen went to the inside, completely winning the position from a Hamilton who saw the title fade away, but not before trying to return the move to the Dutchman. Lewis pulled level with Max, but his hard tyre with 44 laps was uncompetitive against the Red Bull's softs. Verstappen hung on with impeccable defence and went into the final three corners knowing he was going to be champion, the first ever Formula 1 champion from the Netherlands.
Max arrived at the top level of motorsport at the age of just 17. He shared a seat with Carlos Sainz - who has finished a fantastic first season at Ferrari, finishing first of the "mortals" and beating Charles Leclerc - at Toro Rosso, and now, he is world champion. Red Bull took a gamble on him because he was a special talent, an aggressive - sometimes over-aggressive -, brave and feisty type of driver. This season leaves many indelible memories. The three-lap race in Bahrain, Verstappen's lap in qualifying in Jeddah which, despite ending up in the wall, left a drive like few others have ever seen, the podium in Qatar with possibly the three best drivers of this century - Max, Lewis and Fernando Alonso. A season that will be hard to forget and that leaves us orphaned until 20 March 2022, when El Plan kicks off.