Level on points, Verstappen, Hamilton head to historic Formula 1 final race in Abu Dhabi

By Selcuk Bugra Gokalp

ANKARA (AA) - Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton will go to a historic Formula One final race in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 10-12.

Both drivers have equal points before the final race of the Formula One 2021 Championship.

As for 24-year-old Verstappen, son of former Formula One driver Jos Verstappen, he will race for his first career title.

He will become the 34th champion and the first Dutch driver to win the championship in F1 history if he succeeds.

36-year-old veteran Brit driver Hamilton, on the other hand, aims to become equal with German legend Michael Schumacher's record of "the most consecutive F1 driver to win championships".

Being the driver with the most race wins (103) and pole positions (103) in F1 history, Hamilton will bag the title for the 8th time after 2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 titles if he comes out on top this season.

- Verstappen to be named champion if tie does not break

Both drivers have 369.5 points before the final Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi.

If the deadlock between Verstappen and Hamilton stays the same after Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Verstappen will be announced as the champion due to his nine race wins against Hamilton's eight.

There are two possible scenarios for this to happen.

The first possibility is that one of the drivers finishes 9th while the other finishes 10th with the fastest lap time.

The second possible scenario means both drivers finish the race without any points.

- Second point-tie situation in history before final race

The point tie between the drivers before the final Grand Prix of the season has not taken place since 1974.

In the 15-race 1974 season, McLaren-Ford driver Emerson Fittipaldi and Ferrari's Clay Regazzoni started the final race held in the US with 52 points each.

Rules were different back then as only the first six drivers were awarded points and the winner of the Grand Prix would win 9 points.

When Fittipaldi had finished the US Grand Prix fourth, which Carlos Reutemann of Brabham Ford won, he earned 3 points and won the second championship of his career while his rival Regazzoni finished 11th and got no points.

- Last GP became championship decider five times in history

The last Grand Prix of the year being the decider of the champion of that F1 season happened several more times.

There was a big struggle for the championship between four drivers (Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton) in the 2010 season, the first season the current rulebook was used.

This means all first ten drivers of each race are awarded points while the winner is awarded ten.

The championship decider of the 2010 season was Abu Dhabi Grand Prix -- as it will be this season -- and the winner of the four-driver-struggle was German driver Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, who won the Abu Dhabi GP and collected a total of 256 points.

Two years later, Vettel took place in another last race decider, the Brazilian Grand Prix, with Fernando Alonso of Ferrari in 2012.

Vettel, the title winner of the last two seasons, was 13 points ahead of Alonso before the final race, and at some point during the race at Interlagos Circuit, he had fallen back to the last spot.

But before the end of the race, the German driver climbed up to the 6th spot and earned eight points to bag the title with a total of 281 points, three points ahead of Alonso.

In 2014, a season-long battle took place between two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton had a seventeen-point advantage into the title-deciding Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

English driver went on to win both the race and the championship with 384 points, while Rosberg struggled with electrical problems and finished the last race without points.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix became another championship decider for Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Rosberg in 2016.

This time German driver Rosberg led Hamilton by twelve points before Abu Dhabi GP.

After finishing the Abu Dhabi race second, Rosberg bagged the first and only title of his career with 385 points -- leading Hamilton by five points.