Formula one revving up for electrifying finale in Abu Dhabi

Formula One organisers and fans could not have asked for a better build-up to the season’s finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend.

Britain’s Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time champion, and 24-year-old Dutchman Max Verstappen, seeking his first overall title, enter the 22nd and final race of the season at the modified Yas Marina Circuit level on points this weekend.

Verstappen will take the title if he outscores Hamilton, who has won the past three races, or if both fail to score or finish.

After lining up in Bahrain more than eight months ago in March for the first race of the season, who would have thought it would come down to the final race, 819km away after a whirlwind season that saw them race on four continents?

At 24, Verstappen is 12 years Hamilton’s junior. Since making his debut in Australia in 2015 as the youngest driver to compete in Formula One, aged just 17 years and 166 days, Verstappen has won 19 races, including nine this season.

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Hamilton, who would make history by becoming the first person to win eight Formula One titles, has recorded eight victories this season and a whopping record 103 career wins since making his debut in 2007, also in Australia.

Such has Hamilton’s dominance been over the past decade, he has won the overall title six times in the last seven years.

Verstappen feels he was hard done by officials in Saudi Arabia last week, insisting he was “punished for his driving style and that others, who drive in the same aggressive and unforgiving way, are not”.

To make it even more exciting, there’s almost nothing in the constructor’s championship between Hamilton’s Mercedes and Verstappen’s Red Bull teams, with just 28 points separating the two teams.

In the words of the legendary late commentator Murray Walker: “You can cut the tension with a cricket stump.

Anything happens in Grand Prix racing … and it usually does.”