ADVERTISEMENT

Warning: array_slice() expects parameter 1 to be array, object given in /home/customer/www/straighttothegrid.com/public_html/wp-content/plugins/jnews-instagram/class/class-instagram.php on line 68
    Straight to the grid
    ADVERTISEMENT
    • Home
    • News
      • All
      • Driver News
      • Latest
      • Team News
      Verstappen

      Max Verstappen extends championship lead with Miami GP win

      Perez Pole

      Miami GP starting grid: Perez to lead from lights out ahead of Alonso, Sainz and Magnussen

      Baku, Championship Standings

      Here are the Championship Standings ahead of the Miami GP

      Perez, Red Bull

      DRIVER REACTION: Perez wins the Azerbaijan GP and becomes first driver with repeat wins in Baku

      Azerbaijan race

      Leclerc on pole while two teams starting in the pit lane ahead of the Azerbaijan GP

      Sergio Perez

      Perez beats Leclerc to victory in Baku Sprint as Verstappen left fuming

      Sprint

      Leclerc, Perez and Verstappen voice their concerns ahead of the first Sprint Race of the season

      qualifying

      Azerbaijan Grand Prix organisers secure three-year deal to remain on Formula 1 calendar until 2026

      Max Verstappen Baku

      Verstappen voices disappointment with P3 Sprint Quali finish and says ‘I don’t think it will be straightforward’

      • Latest
      • Driver News
      • Team News
    • Features
      • All
      • Interviews
      • Race Reports 2020
      • Race Reports 2021
      Verstappen, Australia

      Driver reaction as Max Verstappen wins the Australian GP after sheer chaos across all 58 laps

      Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez

      FP3 Saudi Arabia: Red Bull domination continues with one-two to finish practice

      Verstappen, FP2, Saudi

      FP2 Saudi Arabia: Verstappen remains out front while Hamilton’s struggles magnified

      Verstappen

      FP1 Saudi Arabia: Max Verstappen fastest but Aston Martin showing pace at Jeddah

      • Interviews
      • Race Reports 2020
      • Race Reports 2021
    • Races
      • Race Calendar
      • Championship standings
    • More
      • Quiz
      • Competitions
    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
      • All
      • Driver News
      • Latest
      • Team News
      Verstappen

      Max Verstappen extends championship lead with Miami GP win

      Perez Pole

      Miami GP starting grid: Perez to lead from lights out ahead of Alonso, Sainz and Magnussen

      Baku, Championship Standings

      Here are the Championship Standings ahead of the Miami GP

      Perez, Red Bull

      DRIVER REACTION: Perez wins the Azerbaijan GP and becomes first driver with repeat wins in Baku

      Azerbaijan race

      Leclerc on pole while two teams starting in the pit lane ahead of the Azerbaijan GP

      Sergio Perez

      Perez beats Leclerc to victory in Baku Sprint as Verstappen left fuming

      Sprint

      Leclerc, Perez and Verstappen voice their concerns ahead of the first Sprint Race of the season

      qualifying

      Azerbaijan Grand Prix organisers secure three-year deal to remain on Formula 1 calendar until 2026

      Max Verstappen Baku

      Verstappen voices disappointment with P3 Sprint Quali finish and says ‘I don’t think it will be straightforward’

      • Latest
      • Driver News
      • Team News
    • Features
      • All
      • Interviews
      • Race Reports 2020
      • Race Reports 2021
      Verstappen, Australia

      Driver reaction as Max Verstappen wins the Australian GP after sheer chaos across all 58 laps

      Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez

      FP3 Saudi Arabia: Red Bull domination continues with one-two to finish practice

      Verstappen, FP2, Saudi

      FP2 Saudi Arabia: Verstappen remains out front while Hamilton’s struggles magnified

      Verstappen

      FP1 Saudi Arabia: Max Verstappen fastest but Aston Martin showing pace at Jeddah

      • Interviews
      • Race Reports 2020
      • Race Reports 2021
    • Races
      • Race Calendar
      • Championship standings
    • More
      • Quiz
      • Competitions
    No Result
    View All Result
    Straight to the grid
    No Result
    View All Result

    Declan Quigley: “It would be a crying shame if the driver’s title were to be decided in a court room”

    Verstappen

    Credit: Kamran Jebreili - Pool/Getty Images

    That was the title decider that we, the fans, deserved. And, in Max Verstappen, the 2021 season has a worthy champion who didn’t put a foot wrong in one of the most remarkable title deciders in history.

    Was it the final race conclusion which Lewis Hamilton deserved? Well, Mercedes didn’t think so and their post-race protests were an almost inevitable epilogue to race 22 which had more melodrama than even the producers of Drive to Survive could dream up.

    This has been the best F1 world championship for years, arguably the greatest ever and, while there was controversy in the final stanza, there is great relief that the championship was decided on the final lap in a thrilling wheel to wheel tussle which – alone of the interactions between the two teams in recent races – produced no rancour.

    Verstappen
    Credit: Screenshot Sky F1

    Lewis Hamilton will feel aggrieved. He drove pretty much impeccably all afternoon. The Hamilton-Mercedes combination was clearly the fastest and were it not for that irritating variable which annoys all engineers – the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune – he would now be celebrating his eighth title.

    Verstappen’s race was pretty much without blemish, too, which adds to a certain frustration that they can’t share the title. At the end of a year when there was little to choose between Mercedes and Red Bull, it was almost inevitable that both teams would be displaying symptoms of paranoia in recent races.

    Individual decisions from Race Control ought not be taken in aggregate and Michael Masi and the Stewards were surely policing each incident on individual merits but there was a sense that things balanced out on the final day.

    Mercedes
    Credit: Screenshot, F1

    Hamilton was surely fortunate to retain the lead after running off track on lap one. The Stewards’ ‘nothing to see here’ call was frustrating for every race fan given Verstappen stayed on track. If there was a wall at the edge of the track would Hamilton have ended up against it or would he have been able to slot in behind Verstappen?

    The rights or wrongs of the regulation probably come down to that. Verstappen would, no doubt, be quick to point out that there isn’t a wall at the edge of the track and that he, battling to win a maiden world title, stayed on the tarmac.

    Oddly, had Hamilton been forced to cede the lead at that time and followed Verstappen to the first round of stops, the Mercedes driver would probably have gained a tactical advantage. On pace alone he would surely have taken the lead at the switch to fresh rubber.

    Verstappen clung by his fingernails to the coat tails of Hamilton’s flying Mercedes and got the most out of a car which, thanks to his extraordinary talent, lifted him miles clear of the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas and his own team mate Sergio Perez.

    Verstappen
    Credit: Screenshot, F1

    It’s a peculiar state of affairs when a driver who has been clearly vanquished on outright pace is able to come back into the mix via the tactical advantage gained by following another driver when a Safety Car or Virtual Safety Car is declared.

    Mercedes made no tactical errors around pit stop strategy and Red Bull’s safety car plays were obvious. It’s easy to dive to the pit lane when the leader doesn’t and likewise impossible in that situation for the leader to pit and give up hard won track position.

    For Red Bull, putting Verstappen onto fresher tyres brought them back onto the front foot which they had been fighting to regain after Verstappen’s qualifying two flat spot on Saturday. That was his only error in what was a terrific conclusion to a thoroughly entertaining year.

    As I write the race stewards, the team principals and a number of high fee lawyers were poring over a rule book chock-full of strangulated prose. It would be a crying shame if the driver’s title were to be decided in a court room.

    Mercedes won the World Constructor’s Championship, Max Verstappen is a very deserving World Driver’s Champion and we, the viewers, won the ‘privileged to see it’ title.

    Share this:

    • Twitter
    • Facebook

    Related

    Tags: Abu DhabiDeclan QuigleyLewis HamiltonMax VerstappenTitleYas Marina
    Previous Post

    Race stewards reject Mercedes’ world title protests following Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

    Next Post

    Formula One experts react to stewards ‘shock’ decisions amid title-decider

    Related Posts

    Verstappen, Australia
    Catch up

    Driver reaction as Max Verstappen wins the Australian GP after sheer chaos across all 58 laps

    Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez
    Catch up

    FP3 Saudi Arabia: Red Bull domination continues with one-two to finish practice

    Verstappen, FP2, Saudi
    Catch up

    FP2 Saudi Arabia: Verstappen remains out front while Hamilton’s struggles magnified

    Verstappen
    Catch up

    FP1 Saudi Arabia: Max Verstappen fastest but Aston Martin showing pace at Jeddah

    saudi arabia
    Catch up

    Everything you need to know ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

    verstappen
    Catch up

    2022 Saudi Arabian GP: Throwback to Max Verstappen securing the win after epic battle with Leclerc

    Next Post
    Red Bull, Max Verstappen in Bahrain

    Verstappen gives major RB19 update in Bahrain which may raise concern among other teams in the paddock

    • Trending
    • Comments
    • Latest
    30 years ago Jordan Grand Prix made its Formula One debut

    30 years ago Jordan Grand Prix made its Formula One debut

    Latest figures show F1 to be the second fastest growing major sports league on the planet

    Latest figures show F1 to be the second fastest growing major sports league on the planet

    Jordan

    INTERVIEW: Eddie Jordan is an ‘irrepressible character’ who ‘ducked and dived’ to make it in F1

    standings

    Championship Standings: Max Verstappen leads as we head to Texas

    Red Bull, Max Verstappen in Bahrain

    Verstappen gives major RB19 update in Bahrain which may raise concern among other teams in the paddock

    Aston Martin, FP2, Bahrain

    Fernando Alonso shocks spectators as he places his Aston Martin at the top of the FP2 timesheet in Bahrain

    Mercedes, George Russell, Bahrain

    Issues persist for Mercedes as George Russell complains about floor and a ‘disturbance aerodynamically’

    Aston Martin, FP2

    Friday, Bahrain: Here are the full results from FP1 and FP2 as Aston Martin impress

    Verstappen

    Max Verstappen extends championship lead with Miami GP win

    Perez Pole

    Miami GP starting grid: Perez to lead from lights out ahead of Alonso, Sainz and Magnussen

    Baku, Championship Standings

    Here are the Championship Standings ahead of the Miami GP

    Perez, Red Bull

    DRIVER REACTION: Perez wins the Azerbaijan GP and becomes first driver with repeat wins in Baku

    Recent News

    Verstappen

    Max Verstappen extends championship lead with Miami GP win

    Perez Pole

    Miami GP starting grid: Perez to lead from lights out ahead of Alonso, Sainz and Magnussen

    Baku, Championship Standings

    Here are the Championship Standings ahead of the Miami GP

    Perez, Red Bull

    DRIVER REACTION: Perez wins the Azerbaijan GP and becomes first driver with repeat wins in Baku

    Popular Stories

    • Peter Collins "can’t wait to see what the timesheets reveal after this weekend’s test."

      Peter Collins: “Testing is getting underway. How will these new thoroughbreds perform?”

      0 shares
      Share 0 Tweet 0
    • Qualifying British GP: Hamilton to lead to first sprint race of the season at Silverstone

      0 shares
      Share 0 Tweet 0
    • Fans go wild for new helmet cam footage on board with Alonso

      0 shares
      Share 0 Tweet 0
    • Max Verstappen wins the Abu Dhabi GP and the 2021 World Championship

      0 shares
      Share 0 Tweet 0

    Straight to the Grid

    Straight to the Grid

    Straight to the Grid is Ireland's first exclusive Formula One news source, bringing fans all of the latest
    news, results, interviews, features and much more!

    Navigation

    • Catch up
    • Competitions
    • Driver News
    • Features
    • Interviews
    • Irish F1
    • Latest
    • News
    • Quiz
    • Race Reports 2020
    • Race Reports 2021
    • Race Reports 2022
    • Team News
    • Uncategorized

    Instagram

    No Result
    View All Result
    • Home
    • News
      • Latest
      • Driver News
      • Team News
    • Features
      • Interviews
      • Race Reports 2020
      • Race Reports 2021
      • Race Reports 2022
    • Races
      • Championship standings
      • Race Calendar
    • More
      • Quiz
      • Competitions

    This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.