It has been a crazy year in Formula 1. The never-ending drivers’ championship battle has provided all of us some excitement. Will the winner be decided soon?
For 7 years now, we have watched the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 team and Lewis Hamilton dominating both drivers and constructors’ championships. Because of this reason, most spectators thought the sport to be getting boring. However, this year is different.
From the very start of the season, it has been a pretty crazy year in Formula 1. Red Bull Racing has seemingly improved their car compare to last year and this provided us a very close battle at the top. Now with only 2 races left the battle is even more fiery and the odds are changing drastically every week. Find your moment, choose your winner and play your bets by opening an original bet365 account!
All season Red Bull slightly been better than Mercedes but this has been mostly by Verstappen’s outstanding performance. This is why Verstappen is leading the drivers’ championship while Mercedes leads the constructors.
Game changing Brazilian Grand Prix
Right until the Brazilian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton did not have the best year. At this very race it was decided that Mercedes would change his internal combustion engine (ICE). Because they have exceeded the allocation for the ICE, Hamilton has been handed with a 5-place grid penalty.
This wasn’t the end of all the drama happened in Brazil as Hamilton was disqualified from the qualifications due to DRS infringement. This disqualification meant that Hamilton would start the Sprint Quali from the back of the grid. With a spectacular performance, Hamilton rose up to 5th place from 20th and with the addition of his 5-place grid penalty, on the actual race he started at 10th position.
As Mercedes CEO and team boss Toto Wolff stated, the beast has awakened and Hamilton come to win the Brazilian Grand Prix. The same tradition continued at another dramatic race – the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix, where Verstappen was handed 5-place grid penalty due to ignoring double waved yellow flags during Quali. 19-point difference between Verstappen and Hamilton has come down to only 8 points.
Only 2 more races left
Now it all comes down to the question of whether Max Verstappen will win his first drivers’ championship or Lewis Hamilton will break the record by taking his 8th?
We have two more races left in the Arabian cities – Jeddah and Abu Dhabi. For Verstappen to take the championship before the last race in Abu Dhabi, he has to collect 18 or more points than Hamilton. In this scenario the difference in points would be 26 or more. Even if Hamilton wins the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and gets the fastest lap point as well, he would also collect 26 points and this would tie them in points. But as per the rules, in case of a tie, the driver who has the most amount of winnings (1st place) takes the championship.
Will Max Verstappen manage to get the all points needed? Or Lewis Hamilton who had a better performances over the past 2 races will pass him? We might not have all the answers yet but you can be informed of the later updates by tuning to our news section!