What a season we watched in this 2021! There are simply no words to describe the excitement it put us through. And not just the two contenders for the drivers' championship, but the entire starting grid. The 20 best drivers from around the world gave their all from the first Grand Prix of the year to win both championships, however, Max Verstappen took the drivers’ crown, while Mercedes the constructors' crown. Many people believed that both championships would be concluded before the final race of the season, however, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton did not let it be. The Dutchman and the Briton fought until the last lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, where Verstappen managed to overtake the seven-time world champion to become Formula 1 world champion for the first time in his sporting career. In this article, we'll go over the key moments (highs and lows) from the reigning champion Max Verstappen's 2021 season.

We started in Bahrain, where Max started on pole position with Lewis Hamilton next to him. Until lap 20, the Dutchman stayed ahead of Hamilton, however, a strategic error on the part of Red Bull caused the British driver to use the famous undercut technique, since when Max made his pit stop, Hamilton already had done it and the Dutchman came out behind 44. With 5 laps to go, Max started his attack for the first position. On lap 53, Max manages to pass the Mercedes, however, Red Bull orders him to return the position for having overtaken outside the track limits. The laps weren't enough to overtake the British, finishing the Bahrain GP in second place just 0.745 seconds behind the seven-time champion. We flew to Imola for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Hamilton starts from pole but Verstappen passes him in the first corner of the first lap. On lap 31, being a race in the rain, Lewis Hamilton began to cut a long time to Max Verstappen, however, when he began to pass the lapped cars, the Briton made a mistake that costs him a broken front wing. However, with half a race ahead, Hamilton manages to reposition himself in second position, with Max Verstappen the winner of this race with a 22-second lead over Hamilton.

The Portuguese Grand Prix is ​​the third date of the season, with Max starting in third position after an excellent classification from Mercedes with a 1-2. Without much movement, Max managed to remove the second position from Valtteri Bottas, this being his final position of the race. The Spanish Grand Prix is ​​the next, where Max had a better start than Lewis Hamilton, snatching the first position from him, however, Mercedes was strategically superior to Red Bull, resulting as the winner of the seven-time champion with the Dutch driver in the second place. For Max, the Monaco Grand Prix was absolutely perfect. He did not make a single mistake, he remained in the lead from start to finish (taking advantage of the fact that Leclerc did not start the race), and Monaco was the race where he gave a blow to the world championship, since he finished in the first position, while his rival (Hamilton) barely managed to reach seventh position. Monaco was, without a doubt, one of the Dutchman's brightest moments of this entire 2021 season.

However, the joy did not last long for the Dutchman since Baku was not at all what he expected. After literally leading the entire race, on lap 46, a puncture on his left rear tyre caused him to lose control of his car and crash on the main straight of the circuit. The Dutchman drove brilliantly throughout the race, but it was a very important loss of points for the championship. France was a perfect race for Red Bull, who, thanks to the teamwork of its two drivers, achieved victory with Max Verstappen and third place with Checo Perez. Something quite positive for the constructors’ and drivers' championships, in addition, the Mexican driver was already on a roll as he won the Baku GP.

Austria is home to Red Bull Racing, and boy did they have two great weekends. Both without complications and it seemed that his car adapted easily to the conditions shown at the Red Bull Ring. Max Verstappen was the winner on both dates, both in the Austrian and Styrian GP. Result that positioned Max Verstappen as the leader to beat in the drivers' championship and the fight looked more and more intense.

Everyone, absolutely everyone, knows what happened during Lewis Hamilton's home Grand Prix, that is, the British Grand Prix. Max takes the lead at the start, Hamilton remains in second position, but when he reaches Copse, one of the fastest corners of all F1 circuits, the Mercedes goes very late to attempt an inside overtake, his front left tyre hits Max's right rear and the Red Bull is thrown towards the retaining wall in such a heavy 51 G crash. Max was taken to the hospital for a more detailed inspection, fortunately there were no complications but it was such a controversial manoeuvre that the FIA ​​had to intervene to impose a sanction on the British, which was also controversial since for many people, this was very light for the event. Verstappen's accident in this race was probably the lowest point of his entire season, yet the Dutchman came back stronger than ever, although not in Hungary. The Hungaroring was not the circuit expected to have a good race. Max barely managed to finish in ninth position 80 seconds behind the winner (Esteban Ocon).

Belgium was also very controversial as, during the race, torrential rain hit the circuit. The FIA ​​tried to start the race with only 3 laps behind the safety car, however, the rain was so heavy that the FIA ​​decided to end the race with these 3 laps, consequently, the result was exactly the same as the order of the qualifying, where Max Verstappen was the winner. Another strong point during the season was Max Verstappen's home Grand Prix. The Dutch Grand Prix. Max managed to position himself on pole position on Saturday, while in the race, the Dutchman always stayed ahead of both Mercedes, who completed the podium. Winning the Grand Prix at his home is always something extraordinary, something that will be forever marked in history.

A second collision between the title contenders occurred during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza. Fighting for position, Max and Lewis collided at turn two at the Monza International Circuit, leaving both competitors out of the race. The Russian Grand Prix, despite not having won, felt like a victory for Max, as he started at the end of the starting grid due to a penalty from his power unit. Having made it to sixth place, rain came in Sochi, giving him a chance to finish second only behind Hamilton. Similarly, the Turkish Grand Prix was quite positive for the Dutch driver's championship, as he finished in second position, with his teammate in third place and his championship rival in fifth.

As we have been seeing, the United States Grand Prix was held in Austin and the fight for first place did not end until the last lap. Lewis Hamilton was willing to give everything to snatch the first position from Max Verstappen, however, the laps were not enough and the Dutchman was the winner. Mexico was friendlier for Max, as he won the race with a comfortable 16.5-second lead over second place (Lewis Hamilton). There were two consecutive races winning and he was hoping to repeat his victory in Brazil, however, Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes looked incredibly fast and powerful, leaving Red Bull with no chance to take the victory, this despite being disqualified from saturday's sprint race due to an anomaly with his Mercedes rear wing. The same thing happened in Qatar, with Mercedes and Hamilton dominating from start to finish. At this point Red Bull and Max knew that Mercedes and the British were going to be at their 1000% performance in the last few races. The most Max managed to get in this country was second place.

In Saudi Arabia, the controversial decisions of the FIA ​​were again presented. An interesting manoeuvre by the Dutchman to let Hamilton pass, caused a collision between these two drivers. The FIA ​​decided to penalize him early after the race, resulting in a victory for Hamilton with Max behind him. With this result, the championship would be defined in the last race of the season. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was boring; however, the last 8 laps were absolutely the opposite. At the start, Max started from pole but Hamilton quickly passed him to maintain the lead for the entire race. Strategically speaking, both teams made the right decisions. With a difference of 8 seconds from Max to Hamilton (both already on fresh tyres), Checo Perez managed to fight the seven-time champion to help the Dutchman reduce this advantage, which was reduced to less than a second. However, Max did not have a chance to overtake. With 5 laps to go, Nicholas Latifi hits the wall and the FIA ​​decides to bring out the safety car. The marshals clear the debris and the group of cars begins to compact. There was a problem, between the leader of the race (Hamilton) and Verstappen (who was in second place) had about 5 lapped cars. The FIA ​​decided to announce that, due to the lack of laps, these drivers were not going to be able to overtake the safety car. Red Bull is putting pressure on the FIA ​​to get the lapped cars out of the way and Hamilton and Verstappen can fight with just one lap of the race. The FIA ​​decides that they could overtake the safety car, on that lap, the safety car enters the pits, leaving only one lap for the title contenders to fight. At turn 3 of the track, Max decides to launch the attack and manages to overtake Hamilton. With this, Max Verstappen becomes champion of Formula 1.

It was an exceptional season for the Dutchman. The best he ever had and boy did he have the reward. Yes, Verstappen made mistakes that cost him points in the world championship, however, he always kept fighting for the victory of the Grand Prix that was being disputed. In summary, Max Verstappen achieved a total of 10 victories throughout the season, 395.5 points in the drivers' championship, 10 pole positions, 6 fastest laps, a record for the most podiums in a single season with a total of 18 and an average position of 1.84. Without a doubt, a magnificent season for the Dutch driver.