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Lewis Hamilton wins chaotic Saudi Arabia F1 Grand Prix race



Lewis Hamilton pass Max Verstappen with six rounds left on Sunday to win Saudi Arabia’s chaotic opening grand opening and pull even on points with your opponent as Formula One’s thrilling championship race advances to the title-defining finale.

The street race under the lights in the 30-kilometer (18.6-mile) coastal resort of Jeddah will be one of the most memorable events of the season – if not the past few years. The event was marred by three standing starts, a pair of restarts, multiple safety cars and a tense stand-off between the title contenders.

Red Bull allowed to negotiate a penalty for Verstappen, Mercedes Head Toto Wolff slammed his headset in a fit of rage, and Hamilton drove into the back of his title competitor before eventually overtaking Verstappen to win.

Verstappen was disheartened after finishing second and was left in doubt about the strange debut race in Saudi Arabia.

“What happened today is unbelievable,” he said. “I was just trying to race. This sport is more about penalties than racing. So for me this is not Formula One but at least the fans have enjoyed it”.

Camp Mercedes, even with victory, was no less difficult.

“Lewis, that has to be the craziest race I can remember,” Hamilton’s engineer radioed after he crossed the finish line.

Hamilton needed some time to recover from climbing out of his car.

“I’ve been racing for a long time but it’s been extremely difficult,” Hamilton said. “I try to be as reasonable and tough as possible. With all my racing experience over the years, just keeping the car on track and clean, it’s hard. We have persevered as a team. ”

Verstappen was fined for going off course during the second restart, then told to make way for Hamilton, but Hamilton ran into the back of his Red Bull to damage the front wing on his Mercedes. . The two differ on what happened, and Verstappen was called up before the managers after the race.

“I don’t understand why he suddenly hit brake pretty heavily then I moved in behind him,” said Hamilton, who was not told by Mercedes that Verstappen would let him take the lead.

Verstappen suggested that it was Hamilton’s own fault.

“I slow down, I want to let him go. He didn’t want to pass and then we ran into each other,” Verstappen said. I don’t really understand what happened there. “

After the seven-time world champion swam past Verstappen, Hamilton took control of the finish and won his third race in a row. The British driver has had eight wins in the season and is currently in a point relationship with Verstappen on the leaderboard. Verstappen still leads the championship with most wins, 9-8.

The championship will be decided next Sunday in the final night in Abu Dhabi.

“It will be decided there,” Verstappen said, “Hopefully we will have a nice weekend.”

Hamilton is a four-time guard F1 championship and looking for an eighth title to break the all-time record he shares Michael Schumacher. 24-year-old Verstappen is looking for his first championship and has dominated the season for Red Bull until the end of this three-time race by Mercedes and Hamilton.

“I don’t think this has been done yet. The end result, winning the race, I think he deserved it,” Wolff said. “We might have gone out a few times with a broken front wing. I don’t want dirty clothes out here, but it was a spectacular race, but not a good one. ”

Valtteri Bottas finished third to put both Mercedes drivers on the podium. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon was fourth and followed by Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren.

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly was sixth, followed by Ferrari car by Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. Antonio Giovinazzi’s Alfa Romeo and McLaren’s Lando Norris took the final two points-paying places.

Sebastian Vettel, Sergio Perez, Nikita Mazepin, George Russell and Mick Schumacher all failed to finish because of multiple messy and blinded restarts during the second longest run on the calendar. The lap spanned 6.2 km (3.8 miles), with 27 corners (16 left turns, 11 right turns) and was completed just a day before F1’s domestic debut.

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