Max Verstappen Abu Dhabi penalty haunts F1 title dreams

This weekend Max Verstappen has so far done everything he can do to try and win what would be arguably his greatest championship victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

However, as he leads into turn one on Sunday he will have to get over some horror stories in previous years if he wants to take his title fight with McLaren duo Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri beyond the first lap.

You see, the last time Verstappen attacked turn one in anger along with 19 other F1 drivers, it ended in total disaster for him... and also one of his title rivals.

At the 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the Dutchman was fourth on the grid but in a wild lunge at the first corner ended up torpedoing into Piastri, effectively ruining both of their races.

Verstappen admittedly had nothing to play for. He had already sealed his fourth world title and Red Bull were as good as confirmed for second place in the constructors' championship - but still it was a ludicrous move!

Verstappen was handed a 10-second penalty for the incident, as well as two penalty points on his super licence. He managed to finish sixth in the race, with Piastri recovering to finish 10th, with Lando Norris strolling to victory.

Max Verstappen has Abu Dhabi F1title horrors

That happens again on Sunday and the Brit will be celebrating his first world championship. This isn't a one-off with Max at the Yas Marina circuit though.

In 2021, he gained a huge advantage over Lewis Hamilton in the title race by securing pole position knowing he only had to match the Brit's result to win his first world championship.

However, he was outgunned at the start and beaten into the first corner. Had a lunatic from the FIA (Toto Wolff's words not mine) not given him a huge slice of luck at the end of the race to repass Hamilton on the last lap and win - that would have also been an Abu Dhabi disaster.

What does work in favour for Verstappen is the pressure is totally off him this weekend. He isn't expected to win, and it's out of his hands in the title permutations. Even if he wins, his best chance of taking the championship is Norris finishing fourth.

Possible, but considering we all but know Piastri would drop back positions to give him the third he needs, we may as well make that fifth and that's only happened once in normal racing conditions this season back in Azerbaijan.

But T1 will be vital to Max's chances. He has to control the race, and it could see him borrow some Lewis Hamilton dark arts to achieve this.

Verstappen can't win the championship at turn 1 but he can certainly lose it and so much to play for he cannot afford to repeat previous bad starts in 2021 and last year. There's no Michael Masi bonus round this time.

But get into T1 ahead of the pack and it's game on!

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