VERST.2ND AND 3RD

Max will be GOAT if he pulls off this title win

- BY ANDY DUNN

IF MAX Verstappen somehow claims a fifth world drivers' championship in Abu Dhabi this weekend, Lewis Hamilton will allow himself a wry smile.

Or something like that. The last time Verstappen snatched a world title at the final race of the Formula One season was in 2021, the first of his four successive crowns.

It was a controversial one, to say the least. And it was complicated, to say the least.

An unusual interpretation of safety car procedures by then-race director Michael Masi, who was subsequently removed from his position, gave Verstappen the chance to pass Hamilton on the last lap and take a record-breaking eighth world title away from the Brit.