Narain Karthikeyan backs Hamilton in Abu Dhabi GP

A series of questionable race control calls were made at the season finale in Abu Dhabi on Sunday when Max Verstappen passed Lewis Hamilton on the final lap to win his maiden title and deny the Briton a record-breaking eighth crown.

“How the entire situation unfolded, it seemed like they wanted Max to win. It was a great battle for the championship but what happened on Sunday it wasn’t sport. You need close battles in Formula 1 but it has to be fair at the same time,” Karthikeyan said.

Hamilton was cruising to victory when Nicholas Latifi’s crash on lap 53 of the 58-lap race brought the safety car on to the track. In a last throw of dice, Red Bull pitted Verstappen for soft tyres after the safety car was deployed while Hamilton stayed out on his worn out hard tyres.

In what could go down as the most controversial call of the Formula 1 decade, race director Michael Masi allowed five backmarkers to unlap themselves on the penultimate lap, making it much easier for Verstappen to make the move on Hamilton. The social media was a divided space post the finale with some calling Mercedes’ race strategy too safe. However, Karthikeyan feels Mercedes was right to not let Hamilton pit following the crash.

“What Mercedes would have done, Red Bull would have done the opposite and stayed out to take track opposition so it was too risky. Lewis had so much pace and hard tyres had life of 50 laps so why should you give that up?

“Before the safety car the gap was still more than 11 seconds between Hamilton and Verstappen. What happened was not fair and Lewis would have been deserving eight-time champion with due respect to Max who is a very quick driver,” said the 44-year-old who raced in Formula 1 over three seasons between 2005 and 2012.