Ahead of this weekend’s usually unpredictable Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Sky Sports F1 decided to remind Sir Lewis Hamilton fans of the moment which ultimately cost him the title last season.
The 2021 Azerbaijan GP was one full of chaos, outrage and drama, which ultimately saw both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton score zero points.
Sergio Pérez famously claimed his first victory for Red Bull Racing at the race last year, with Sebastian Vettel and Pierre Gasly rounding off the bizarre podium.
Verstappen had been cruising to victory at the Baku City Circuit, until one of the most dramatic tyre failures ever seen in Formula 1.
The Dutchman’s rear-left tyre suddenly blew-out down the main straight, at around 200 mph in what was a terrifying incident for the reigning World Champion.
The red flag was brought out as a result, to clear the substantial amount of debris scattered across the rear of the starting grid.
Verstappen’s tyre failure came several laps after Lance Stroll suffered an almost identical incident, both walked away okay.
At the restart, Pérez was on pole with Hamilton alongside, however, it was the latter who made the better launch off the line.
Drama famously then struck once again, as the seven-time World Champion locked-up at Turn 1 resulting in him completely missing the corner.
It was an unimaginable mistake by the Mercedes F1 Team driver, who as a result fell to the back of the order and crucially out of the points.
Had the mistake not occured, then chances are Hamilton would’ve eventually won the 2021 crown.
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If Hamilton had finished in the top five at Baku, then he would’ve walked away from Abu Dhabi as an eight-time World Champion.
With this in mind, Sky Sports F1 decided to post the restart on Twitter, captioned: “Hamilton could have won the 2021 Drivers’ Championship if it wasn’t for THIS mistake at Baku”.
The tweet has since been deleted, however, not quickly enough for Hamilton supporters to vent their anger.
One fan in particular was certainly not impressed by the tweet, bringing up that it wasn’t Hamilton’s mistake that lost him the title but was actually Michael Masi’s fault, according to her.
Hamilton would’ve of course won the title had the rules regarding safety car restarts been followed more closely at the season finale last year.
Sky Sports’ tweet relighted the feud between Hamilton and Verstappen fans, with the F1 twitter community becoming particularly nasty yet again, similar to the scenes of last season.
Some fans fully agreed that Masi ultimately costed Hamilton victory, while Verstappen supporters were quick to defend the Dutchman.
Others argued that had it not been for Verstappen’s failure, then he would’ve taken all 25 points in Baku – enough for him to win the world championship even if Hamilton had won the season finale.