Verstappen: "Finally a bit of luck; my dream, on the last lap"

December 12, 2021

Verstappen achieved the dream of his life in the most unexpected way, in the most epic way and in a career ending that will go down in history.

The Red Bull man took advantage of the Safety Car that came out after Nicholas Latifi’s accident to change tires and, on the restart of just one lap , made the winning overtake on Hamilton to be crowned the 34th champion in history.

“It’s unbelievable. I mean, the whole race it was tough, and I kept fighting. And then of course that opportunity came on the last lap. It’s unbelievable. My legs are still shaking, it’s crazy, completely crazy.” He commented as soon as he arrived at Parc Fermé in the Yas Marina circuit.

“I mean, I don’t know what to declare, these guys from my team and of course Honda as well, they deserve it. I love them so much. And I’ve really enjoyed working with them since 2016, but this year has been amazing.”

“I think they know that I love them,” Verstappen continued, assuring that he wants a long life at Red Bull and many more successes. “I hope we can do this for 10 or 15 years together. There’s no reason to ever change. I want to stay with them for the rest of my life. I hope they leave me, but yeah, it’s crazy.”

“I am very happy and I also thank Christian, and also Helmut, you know, for trusting me to be in the team since 2016. Our goal of course was to win this championship and now we have achieved it.”

For almost the entire race, really until that Williams accident, everything seemed to be looking towards Lewis Hamilton’s eighth title. It could be said that only a miracle was going to give Verstappen the world championship, and team manager Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1 with 10 laps to go.

“Oh yeah. Finally a bit of luck for me,” Max celebrated. “What madness. I also want to thank Checo, he was also expressing his heart. It was a great team effort. And he is an incredible teammate.”

There Verstappen was referring to Sergio Pérez’s brutal defense of position for two laps against Hamilton, something that allowed the #33 to get closer to his rival, although in the end it would not help much.

“It’s really crazy. My goal as a child was to become a Formula 1 driver. You hope to win, to get on the podium. It’s amazing when you experience these emotions first hand. It reminds you of all the sacrifices you made as a child to achieve this goal and today It all came true on the last lap,” Verstappen concluded.

World Champion Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing