Pull off final-day miracle and you can claim to be the GOAT, Max

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

- BY ANDY DUNN

Or something like that. The last time Verstappen snatched a world title at the final race of a Formula One season was in 2001, the first of his four successive crowns.

It was a controversial one, to say the least. An unusual interpretation of safety car procedures by race director Michael Masi, who was subsequently removed from his position, gave Verstappen the chance to pass Hamilton on the last lap and deny the Brit a record-breaking eighth title.

That night still rankles with Toto Wolff, then Hamilton's boss at Mercedes, who said in October: "I have not experienced the loss of control of a situation since I was a child.