Max Verstappen won his first World Drivers’ Championship at the end of one of the most dramatic title-deciders in Formula One history, passing rival Lewis Hamilton to take the lead and the race win on the last lap of a thrilling Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

With 54 laps of the race gone and with Hamilton in an apparently comfortable 11 second lead, Max’s chances of world championship glory appeared to be over, but when Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashed out and the safety car was released, Max was handed another chance.

Max pitted, took on soft tyres and when the safety car left the track he pounced and roared past Hamilton at turn five, though the Briton fought back on the following straight. However, Max held on to take his 10th win of the year and more importantly his first world championship crown and the team’s first Drivers’ title since 2013.

At the start, Hamilton was better off the line and overhauled the advantage Max had gained in claiming pole position and the Mercedes driver took the lead into turn one. Behind them, Sergio made a good start and stole third place from McLaren’s Lando Norris who ran wide.

Having lost the lead, Max slotted into the slipstream of Hamilton and closed up to the Briton on the run to turn seven. He attacked with a move down the inside and Hamilton went wide. The Mercedes re-joined the track in the lead and the incident prompted the steward to take a closer look.

But when the ruling came back the officials’ verdict was “no investigation necessary,” and Hamilton was free to march on in the lead.

Despite the protestation of the Team, the Briton kept his advantage and then set about building a gap to Max, who soon began to suffer on his starting soft tyres. By lap 13 the Dutchman was five seconds behind his title rival and complaining that his rear tyres were really hurting.

That was the cue for the Dutch driver to head towards the pit lane and in a 2.1s stop he took on hard tyres and re-joined in P5 behind Norris. He quickly got past the McLaren and then set about chasing down Carlos Sainz.

Mercedes reacted to Max’s stop by pitting Hamilton at the end of lap 14 and he took on hard tyres in a 2.4s stop, re-joining in P2, 11 seconds behind Checo. Max soon claimed P3 by comfortably dismissing Sainz, as ahead Hamilton began to reel in Sergio.

The Mercedes driver closed the gap over the next six laps and with DRS support he attacked on the pit straight, passing the Mexican with apparent ease. Checo was not easily dismissed, however, and in the following DRS zone he powered back past the Briton to reclaim the lead.

Checo’s brilliant defence was all the time allowing Max to churn through his own deficit to Hamilton.

And when the Mercedes finally made it past Sergio under DRS on the next lap, Checo gave Max a quick tow and then moved aside to let Max power through into second place behind Hamilton once more, with both now on hard tyres.

However, as the second stint evolved, Hamilton began to slowly draw away from Max and by lap 33 he was five seconds ahead of the Red Bull driver.

However, the complexion of the race changed on lap 36 when Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi pulled over at the side of the track with gearbox issues. The virtual safety car was deployed and with Hamilton staying out on track, the Team quickly called Max in for a fresh set of hard tyres. Checo also pitted under the VSC and he re-joined in third place.

Max re-joined almost 17 seconds behind Hamilton and when the track went green the Red Bull driver began to close on the Mercedes at the rate of eight tenths of a second per lap.

But as the final stint unfolded it became clear that the pace in the new tyres wouldn’t be strong enough to put Max close to the Briton.

With 10 laps left he was 12 seconds behind the Mercedes and running out of time. But races are never over until they’re over and on lap 53 the pendulum swung back towards Max.

Williams’ Nicholas Latifi crashed and the safety car was released. Max immediately pitted and the team fitted a set of soft tyres as Hamilton stayed on track. It looked like the race might finish under the safety car, but on lap 57 race control decreed that the five cars on track between Hamilton and Verstappen would be allowed to unlap themselves and that the safety car would come in to allow a single lap of racing.

And when the track went green Max was immediately on the attack. He closed on Hamilton on the run to turn five and with a brave dive down the inside he claimed the race lead.

Hamilton fought back on the next straight and drew alongside the Dutchman and almost got past, but Max held the line, held his nerve and kept the lead until the finish line and the chequered flag. Formula 1 has a new world champion. His name is Max Verstappen!