We've been waiting for this all season long. The finale, the title decider, under the lights here in Abu Dhabi. It's lights out and away we go. And Hamilton gets a decent start and he's already ahead of Max Verstappen. There's a bit of jockeying going on between Tsunoda and Ricciardo. Hamilton leads into the first corner. Norris goes wide. Sergio Perez slips through into third place, then comes Carlos Sainz. But it's Hamilton out in front. The medium tyres working well for him, as his team mate, Valtteri Bottas, challenges the Ferrari. Into the hairpin we go now. Hamilton leads Bottas, leads Perez, then leads Norris, then the two Ferraris of Sainz and Leclerc. It is a dream start for Lewis Hamilton. Yes, the only good news there for Red Bull is at least Perez is up there. But for the second consecutive weekend the Red Bull did not get off the line very well. There's three abreast going into the Turn 9 hairpin. Oh, and there Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton almost coming together. Hamilton has to go off the track. The Dutch fans roaring in the background. Lewis Hamilton in the lead, but will he have to give back the place? Yes, of course he will, but the problem he's got is, is Perez is right on Verstappen's tail. He has to give that back. "No investigation necessary," say the stewards. The door's open. He's gone through it. He's kept completely within the white lines, and a car that was side by side with him is heading off down the road. I'll stand by that, but that's not what the stewards think. Max Verstappen about to make what should be his one and only pit stop of this race. So Sergio Perez will stay out and will go on to take the lead of this race. Neat stop by the Mercedes crew. OK, we'll be looking to hold up Lewis. Think where's best to do that. Lewis will be nervous of the back of the Red Bull, and Perez will have a lunge up the inside, inevitably. Lewis cuts back underneath him and that's exactly what we expected to happen. He will now drive past him, give him a cheery little wave. And that was about all Perez could do. - Or was it? - No. Perez with DRS is coming back into Turn 9. Can Perez make it into Turn 9? He saved up a bit of energy from that battery store, and with a bit of DRS, possibly as well, has blasted past Lewis Hamilton. So he is going to hold him up just that little extra bit. This is a very, very good tussle here. Perez as absolutely on the limit and as fair as he could be. OK, back him up. Back him up. As they make their way round the final two turns. Hamilton's going to try and get Perez into Turn 1 and have to go the long way round the outside to do it, and can't quite do it. Perez playing the ultimate team game here for Max Verstappen, and this is really frustrating Lewis Hamilton. It's going to be hurting his tyres a little bit as well. That's some dangerous driving. Perez and Hamilton in the 1:34s and the 1:33s. The gap now coming down between Verstappen and Hamilton. You can see him right in the background. Hamilton needs to get past Perez here. He does get past Perez. He moved towards the inside. He's going to force Perez the long way round if Perez is going to try and retake that lead of the race. But on Lap 21 Hamilton does get past Perez. But Perez has played the ultimate team game and he's really brought his team mate back into play. And he can give his team mate a bit of DRS for good measure. So great team play. That's the team play we talked about earlier on. Now he gets clean out of the way. - Oh, Checo is a legend. - Absolute animal. Oh no! Nicholas Latifi has crashed, and I think that is at Turn 14. That will be a Safety Car. - And coming into the pits, Max Verstappen. - And Max pits. Hamilton stays out. Verstappen coming into the pits, and I would imagine there's a set of soft tyres waiting for him to go on to that Red Bull car. Yes, it is. Will we get any more racing laps or not? What jeopardy at the end of this Grand Prix, the end of this world championship. Will there be any more racing laps? If there are, then Verstappen has got the tyres to really do something with them. And lapped cars will not be allowed to overtake. It's not mandatory in the regulations, which leaves Verstappen with a lot of work to do, then. Lapped cars will not be allowed to overtake. - Yeah, of course. Typical decision. - It's classic. I'm not surprised. Haha! Why aren't we getting these lapped cars out of the way? Just give me both... Because Christian... Just give me a second. OK? My main... big one is to get this incident clear. Is the safety car coming in this lap? We think it should do, could do. "Lapped cars to overtake the Safety Car." So Norris and Alonso and Ocon and Leclerc and Vettel... - ... to overtake it. - And it's ending! And it's ending! Wow! So, there's confusion, but the Safety Car is coming in at the end of this lap. So those back markers allowed to overtake the Safety Car. Michael, this isn't right. It has left Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen side by side. Hamilton will be ahead. Verstappen is absolutely desperate to get on with this, on that soft-compound tyre. We're going to have one lap of racing to decide the championship in 2021. Hamilton has the advantage. Verstappen has the faster, fresher tyres and we have got 3.2 miles of racing action all the way to the chequered flag, as the crowd roar the drivers on to the final lap of this race, and Verstappen sets after Hamilton. Is it going to be a first world championship for Verstappen? Is it going to be an eighth world championship for Lewis Hamilton? Where can Verstappen try and get past Hamilton? First overtaking zone is normally down into Turn 5. Is Verstappen far enough back? He's going to make the lunge down the inside. Hamilton sees him coming. It's a late lunge by Verstappen, who takes the lead of the race. Verstappen now snatches the championship trophy from Lewis Hamilton, who's trying to fight back. No DRS for two laps, so Lewis Hamilton will not get the rear wing open. - He's got to... - Now he's going to go down the outside. Verstappen keeps it tight and neat, but he hasn't. He's gone a little bit wide. This race, that started with controversy, has ended with controversy. No, Michael! No, no, Michael! That was so not right! Here comes Lewis Hamilton, though, down the back straight. He's got a slipstream. He almost touches Verstappen. They almost make contact into Turn 9. Verstappen stays ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Of all the drama, of all the controversy, of all the magic moments in Formula 1 in 2021, it comes down to this. And at this moment it looks like it's going to go the way of Max Verstappen. Mercedes not happy. Red Bull will be delighted. They have shared a brilliant championship battle, but the championship can only be won by one and it's going Dutch in 2021. Max Verstappen for the first time ever is champion of the world. Lewis Hamilton finishes in second place after leading for so, so long. - Oh my Lord, Max! Oh my... - Yessssss! Yesssss! Oh my God! - Wahahoooo! Yessssss! Woooooo! - Yessssss! The bubbles and the sparkly stuff to celebrate, as a Formula 1 world championship for the first time. The chapter has ended. I hope you stayed right until the end. And if it was worthwhile, well, don't forget the sequel's coming our away in 2022, in 98 days' time, just enough time for Verstappen and Red Bull to celebrate a championship under the lights in Abu Dhabi.