The 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on 12 December 2021 at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and the 13th edition of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Contested over 58 laps, it was the twenty-second and final round of the 2021 Formula One World Championship. The race decided both the Drivers' and Constructors' championships; Max Verstappen of the Red Bull Racing team and Lewis Hamilton of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team both entered the race on 369.5 points, with Verstappen clinching his maiden Drivers' title while Mercedes-AMG Petronas won a record-breaking eighth consecutive Constructors' championship.
Hamilton had led most of the race and appeared on course to win his eighth title. Verstappen overtook Hamilton on the final lap after a controversial safety car restart in the last moments of the race. The ensuing dispute stemmed from race director Michael Masi's handling of the safety car, which was seen by some as inconsistent with usual race procedures and sparked a wide debate on whether it was influenced by the closeness of the championship battle and the spectacle, as well as the human element of the decisions. Mercedes immediately protested the race result, which the stewards heard and dismissed. Mercedes had the option to appeal the outcome to the FIA International Court of Appeal, but did not do so.
The FIA, the governing authority of the sport, subsequently conducted an inquiry into the race, confirming the race and the championship results. It concluded that the rules had been ambiguous and the safety car regulations required clarification. The FIA issued a press statement stating that race director Michael Masi had acted "in good faith and to the best of his knowledge given the difficult circumstances". The inquiry lead to a clarification of the safety car regulations, communications between the teams and race control were limited. The role of the race director was restructured, with Masi being replaced by two new race directors who were to respectively assume full race director responsibility at different events across the Formula One calendar.
The Grand Prix was the final race for world champion Kimi Räikkönen; the then 42-year-old Finn retired from Formula One after a two-decade career spanning a then-record 349 Grand Prix starts. This was also the final race for Honda as a works power unit supplier until the 2026 Australian Grand Prix in partnership with Aston Martin.
Background
The race was originally scheduled to take place on 5 December, but was rescheduled to 12December after the postponement of the Australian Grand Prix due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Its original date was eventually taken by the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix while the Australian race was cancelled and replaced by the Qatar Grand Prix. It thus became the 22nd and last race of the 2021 season.
Circuit modification The Yas Marina Circuit underwent a layout change that shortened the track in order to increase top speeds and overtaking opportunities. The chicane after turn 4 was removed, and the turn 5 hairpin (turn 7 before redevelopment) was widened. The four corner sequence of turns which were turns 11–14 became one single banked turn 9. The radii of turns 12–15 (previously 17–20) were increased to allow cars to carry more speed. The changes to turn 15 allowed cars to be able to travel flat out through the corner.
Tyres Sole tyre supplier Pirelli provided the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds—the softest selections available—for use in dry conditions.
Entrants
Jack Aitken participated for Williams in the first practice session in place of George Russell. Nikita Mazepin tested positive for COVID-19 after qualifying, forcing his withdrawal from the race; he was not replaced.
The Grand Prix marked the last Formula One race for world champion Kimi Räikkönen, who had announced his intention of retiring at the end of the 2021 season a few months earlier, ending his Formula One career after 19 seasons to move to NASCAR Cup Series. , it is also the last race of Antonio Giovinazzi, who moved to Formula E, and Mazepin, whose contract was terminated following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the cancellation of Uralkali's title sponsorship. It was also the final race for Russell and Valtteri Bottas at Williams and Mercedes-AMG, respectively, as they moved to Mercedes and Alfa Romeo Racing.
Bottas raced with a special helmet for the occasion, featuring photos of all the moments he spent at Mercedes, and he sported a special set of blue racing overalls. Alpine featured the words "El Plan" in both their cars referencing a popular Internet meme. This race also marked the last race for Honda as official engine supplier, as Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri raced with Red Bull Powertrains from 2022, until their return at the 2026 Australian Grand Prix with Aston Martin.
Championship battle before the race and title permutations Title rivals Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing) and Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-AMG) both entered the round with 369.5 points, leaving the championship contenders level on points for the final round for the first time since and only the second time in the sport's history. This meant the driver who scored the most points would win the championship; if both drivers had scored an equal amount of points, Verstappen would have won the championship owing to having more race wins (nine to Hamilton's eight prior to the race). The Drivers' Championship was decided in the final round for the 30th time and the first time since .
In the Constructors' Championship, with 44 points on the table for every team, Mercedes led with 587.5 points, 28 ahead of Red Bull on 559.5; this was the first time since that the final round of the season decided the Constructors' Championship. In the midfield, Scuderia Ferrari led McLaren in the battle for third place by a margin of 38.5 points.
Acrimonious on-track battles throughout the season led to concerns that one of the drivers might cause a deliberate in-race collision in an attempt to win the championship. Historically, the championship battle between McLaren teammates Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost was decided by such an incident at the Japanese Grand Prix; the championship rematch, with Prost now at Ferrari, ended in Senna's favour with another deliberate collision at the Suzuka race; Michael Schumacher's collision with Damon Hill at the 1994 Australian Grand Prix took the Briton out of title contention in the season; and a collision caused by Schumacher with Jacques Villeneuve at the 1997 European Grand Prix led to the German driver's disqualification from the season. In response to such concerns, race director Michael Masi warned that Verstappen or Hamilton could be subject to further sanctions from the FIA, the sport's governing body, if one of them decided to manufacture a deliberate collision in an attempt to engineer a favourable championship result, up to and including championship disqualification or future race bans.
Practice Three practice sessions were scheduled over the course of the weekend. The first session took place at 13:30 local time (UTC+04:00) on Friday 10 December. The second session took place at 17:00. The third session took place at 14:00 on Saturday, 11 December. The first practice session passed without incident and ended with Verstappen setting the fastest time, followed by Bottas and Hamilton. The second practice session ended with Hamilton fastest by 0.3 seconds to second-placed Esteban Ocon, while Bottas was third fastest ahead of Verstappen, 0.6 seconds behind Hamilton. Räikkönen crashed at turn 14 just as the session was concluding, but was unhurt.
Qualifying Qualifying started at 17:00 local time on Saturday, 11 December. The first qualifying session was briefly suspended after Mick Schumacher collided with a bollard but was resumed without further incident, with the Mercedes drivers Hamilton and Bottas recording the fastest times. In the second session, initial flying laps on medium-compound tyres gave Hamilton a four-millisecond advantage over Red Bull Racing driver Verstappen. A lock-up on his second flying lap led to Verstappen's return to the pits for soft tyres. At the end of the session, Verstappen had improved to take first place on the timesheets. Having set the time on the faster soft-compound tyres he was locked to starting the race on Sunday with them, as Hamilton was likewise locked into using his more durable medium-compound tyres. In the third and final qualifying session, Verstappen was able to use the slipstream of his teammate Sergio Pérez to secure pole position, with Hamilton taking the second spot on the grid.
Qualifying classification DriverConstructorQualifying times133 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-Honda1:23.3221:22.8001:22.1091244 Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:22.8451:23.1451:22.480234 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1:23.5531:23.2561:22.9313411 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-Honda1:23.3501:23.1351:22.9474555 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1:23.6241:23.1741:22.9925677 Valtteri BottasMercedes1:23.1171:23.2461:23.0366716 Charles LeclercFerrari1:23.4671:23.2021:23.1227822 Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-Honda1:23.4281:23.4041:23.2208931 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault1:23.7641:23.4201:23.3899103 Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes1:23.8291:23.4481:23.409101114 Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault1:23.8461:23.460N/A111210 Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-Honda1:23.4891:24.043N/A121318 Lance StrollAston Martin-Mercedes1:24.0611:24.066N/A1314991:24.1181:24.251N/A14155 Sebastian VettelAston Martin-Mercedes1:24.2251:24.305N/A15166 Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1:24.338N/AN/A161763 George RussellWilliams-Mercedes1:24.423N/AN/A17187 Kimi RäikkönenAlfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari1:24.779N/AN/A181947 Mick SchumacherHaas-Ferrari1:24.906N/AN/A19209Nikita MazepinHaas-Ferrari1:25.685N/AN/A—107% time: 1:28.644Sources: Notes – Nikita Mazepin qualified 20th, but he withdrew before the race as he tested positive for coronavirus. His place on the grid was left vacant.
Race Race report Start and opening laps The race started at 17:00 local time on Sunday, 12 December with an attendance of 153,000. Hamilton immediately took the lead from Verstappen on the main straight. Verstappen attempted an overtake at the turn 6-7 chicane on the inside. Verstappen's trajectory and late braking took him to the far outside of the track, Hamilton, still on the right, cut turn 7, claiming that Verstappen forced him off. Hamilton re-joined considerably further ahead of Verstappen than where he was before the corner. Red Bull Racing protested, arguing that he should have ceded the position to Verstappen, but were told by radio that Hamilton had ultimately given back any advantage gained. The incident was referred to the stewards, who decided that no further investigation was necessary, something Horner called "a total lack of consistency" mid-race. Hamilton then utilised the durability of his medium-compound tyres to extend his lead over Verstappen, whose soft-compound tyres were suffering from greater degradation.
Pit stops and virtual safety car Verstappen made his stop at the end of lap 13 with Hamilton following suit one lap later, both opting for a set of the hardest tyres. This elevated Pérez to P1, with the Mexican driver being instructed on radio to hold Hamilton up to allow for Verstappen to catch up. This reduced the gap between the contenders from about 11 seconds after the pits to 1.3 seconds on lap 21. Hamilton proceeded to extend the gap again to four seconds by the midpoint of the race.