Hamilton earned the 100th pole position of his career in Barcelona, but duly gave up first position on the first corner of the grand prix, having no option but to sacrifice the spot to an aggressive move by Max Verstappen. A tense, race-long battle then commenced, but it was ultimately Hamilton and Mercedes, making excellent use of a two-stop strategy, who came out on top, overtaking Verstappen with six laps of the race to go for his third win in the season's first four races. The second of the back-to-back races at the Red Bull Ring saw Verstappen pick up where he left off, delighting the Austrian crowd with pole position and then leading every lap of his team's home grand prix. A huge number of Dutch fans also mad there way to Austria to watch their hero dominate proceedings.
Defending F1 world champion Hamilton grabbed top spot in FP2 after title rival Max Verstappen was fastest in the first practice session at the revamped Yas Marina Circuit, with both drivers going into the season finale level on points for a winner takes all race. For those on a budget, once again there are extended highlights of all F1 races on Channel 4, with additional live coverage of the British Grand Prix in July. A last-minute rights deal meant the Channel 4 also showed live coverage of the Abu Dhabi finale, though using the Sky Sports F1 feed and commentary. Channel 4's commentator called the inaugural Saudi GP "an incredible day of confusion," which is an understatement – this will go down as one of the most contentious races of all time. But it delivered on thrills and means a final race of the season with the two leading drivers tied on points, as the incredible 2021 season reaches its conclusion.
It was "won" by Max Verstappen, who had qualified on pole, with a delighted George Russell in the Williams finishing behind him after a sensational lap on Saturday. The drama dutifully returned on the street circuit of Azerbaijan's capital, with a joint-record four red flags brought out during Saturday's qualifying session. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc managed to grasp pole position for the second race in a row but failed to keep it beyond lap two, when he was overtaken by Lewis Hamilton. After that the Monegasque went backwards down the order but recovered to fourth. Using the links above you can find the full weekend schedule, including details of practice and qualifying sessions, support races, press conferences and special events, plus the latest news headlines, circuit information and F1 race results. Sky's race day coverage of this weekend's Abu Dhabi grand prix will also simulcast on Channel 4, as mentioned above.
All Sky customers will have access to qualifying on Saturday and the race via Sky Showcase. However, Sky Sports F1 will be the only place where you can watch every session, including free practice, as well as the Formula 2 finale. Alpine are due to give new Formula 2 champion Oscar Piastri some track time, while both Ferrari and Haas will test another Formula 2 driver, Robert Shwartzman. Mercedes welcomes Formula E champion Nyck de Vries, and Formula 2's Logan Sargeant makes his debut in a Williams. All teams will be obliged to run rookies in free practice sessions from 2022, so expect to see a lot more of them during grands prix weekends. Channel 4 has free-to-air Formula 1 qualifying and race highlights which usually start airing a few hours after the chequered flag has been waved.
It also has live free-to-air coverage of the British grand prix every year, and is home of the all-women's W Series. Going into the final grand prix of the year at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit, Max Verstappen and Sir Lewis Hamilton are tied on 369.5 points each. The last time where the two leading Formula 1 drivers in the championship went into the final race tied on points was in 1974. If you're happy to pay a subscription fee so you can watch entire races live, then Sky is the only option in the UK. While Liberty operates an online streaming service – F1 TV Pro – you can't watch it in the UK because of Sky's exclusive deal.
Airing live in an early evening time slot, an average of 1.94 million viewers watched the opener across Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event, peaking with over 2 million viewers. Sky's schedules show that the broadcaster will simulcast their race day offering across Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event, but not via Sky Showcase, as they did last month for coverage of the US Grand Prix qualifying session. Another exciting element of the 2021 F1 season was the debut of Sprint Qualifying. The 100km races determined the starting grid for Sunday's grands prix and awarded championship points to the top three drivers.
After a safety car, teams were told there would be a standing start from the grid, but just beforehand all the drivers except leader Hamilton dived into the pits for slick tyres, as the track was drying. The result was controversial and a fitting end to a rollercoaster of a year; one shaken up by the coronavirus pandemic, with races cancelled and replaced due to restrictions, but also easily one of the most exciting and dramatic we've seen in decades. It's more than 40 years since two drivers had entered the final round on equal points, and many believe Verstappen and Hamilton's titanic battle to be one of the all-time great F1 rivalries.
Fans wondering how to watch F1 live in India can tune in to the Star Sports Network, which has the official broadcasting rights in the country. As for the Abu Dhabi GP live stream, fans can tune in to the Disney+ Hotstar app. After 21 exciting races, the F edition heads into the season finale in Abu Dhabi this weekend to determine the Drivers' and the Constructors' Champions.
Title contenders Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen are level on points (369.5) going into the final race, with the Dutchman having a slight advantage due to more race wins this year. After 21 races, Formula 1's world championship will be decided at this afternoon's season finale as Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton go head-to-head at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The other way to watch for free - especially if you want to watch races live - is to use a VPN and stream them from broadcasters in other countries that show races on free-to-air channels.
The figures bring together those that watched Channel 4's highlights package and those who watched the races live on Sky, excluding pre- and post-race analysis for the latter. In 2016, the season finale aired live across Channel 4 and Sky Sports as part of the UK F1 TV rights agreement that was in place at that time. The stewards initially held the backmarkers, who sat between Hamilton's lead car and Verstappen in second, behind the safety car.
But with the Williams wreckage cleared away, just before the safety car pulled off the circuit on the penultimate lap, the backmarkers were released, moving Verstappen directly up to the leader's rear wing. Verstappen complained of having worn tyres with five laps to go, but he couldn't pit without losing second place to Ocon. Hamilton nursed his own car home to take the win, with Verstappen 7sec behind – his time penalty making no difference to the order.
Completing the excitement, Bottas passed Ocon metres before the chequered flag to complete the podium. But when the leader slowed on the straight to hand back the place, Hamilton ran into the back of the Red Bull, causing damage to his front wing – a result of poor communication between teams and race control, it is thought. Both cars were able to continue and Verstappen yielded again but immediately re-took the position at the next corner. Sadly for Bottas, a puncture on lap 33 dropped him out of the race from third position.
Both Williams cars later suffered punctures, though Perez had pitted to avoid the same fate to finish fourth. The final podium was Hamilton, Verstappen and then Alonso, in a brilliant drive for Alpine. Verstappen started seventh but made a storming start to reach fourth by turn one, but Hamilton capitalised on pole position and kept his lead. By lap five, Vesrtappen was up into second place, driving the doors off his Red Bull , with Bottas and Perez also driving through the field to make up for lowly grid positions.
At turn three, Esteban Ocon's Alpine was squeezed between Mick Schumacher and Antonio Giovinazzi, damaging his suspension and bringing out the safety car. Ahead of the season finale, here is a look at what time is F1 qualifying and the details of how to watch Abu Dhabi GP live in India, the US and the UK. The UAE plays host to the final round of the 2021 Formula 1 season, as Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen go head-to-head for the title.
Here's how you can watch the all-important Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying session on Saturday. This scenario is a concern for Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff who, having watched Hamilton crash into the back of Verstappen last time out, said he thought the quicker car with the quicker driver should win the championship. The permutations are simple; both drivers enter the season finale on 369.5 points, whoever finishes ahead in Abu Dhabi wins the title, and if they both fail to finish it is Verstappen who triumphs. In the event of one of these relatively unlikely outcomes leading to a tie on points, the driver who has claimed the most wins of the season would take the title. This season, Max has won nine grands prix while Lewis has won eight, which would therefore make Max the drivers' champion if they were tied on points. In the event two drivers had the same number of points and grand prix victories, the countback continues through the highest number of second places, highest number of third places and so on.
Using the available data, it is likely that Friday's qualifying session peaked with 2 million viewers, Saturday's Sprint session with 3 million viewers, and Sunday's race with 4.5 million viewers. On Saturday, a combined audience of just over 2 million viewers watched Channel 4's and Sky's Sprint programming, including build-up and post-session analysis. Nevertheless, with a combined audience of 1.6 million viewers, the British Grand Prix marked F1's highest UK audience on a Friday since at least 2003, if not earlier. The Silverstone weekend was Channel 4's only live action of the season, the broadcaster sharing live coverage with Sky Sports.
In 2018, an average of around 3 million viewers watched across a mix of Channel 4's highlights and 'race only' segments from Channel 4's and Sky's live programming. An average of 1.69 million viewers have watched Channel 4's race day programming so far this year, a decrease of 10.5% on last year's halfway figure of 1.88 million viewers. With 11 of the 23 races completed, the data so far allows us to gauge how well F1 is performing in the UK, and whether the championship fight between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen is having any impact on audience figures. Sky have seemingly reacted to Channel 4's qualifying conundrum by opting to simulcast their live coverage on their new Sky Showcase channel, enabling more viewers to watch qualifying across Sky, Virgin Media and BT TV. Just hearing F1 team members swearing was quite the revelation when the first series aired, and the emotions captured make the characters involved in the sport seem much more human than the sanitised live coverage suggests.
Then the Dutchman got a stormer of a start to retake the lead on the medium tyres versus Hamilton's hards. The Brit made it past Ocon then got a slipstream behind Verstappen into turn one on lap 37 and the two almost tangled at turn one, with Verstappen asked to give the place to his rival as he had retained the lead having driven off the race track once again. It took three attempts to overtake Verstappen, who did not cede easily — stewards reviewed Hamilton's first overtake attempt amid claims that Verstappen had forced him off the track, though no action was taken. Hamilton succeeded in taking first position with 12 laps to go, clinching his third win at the Brazilian Grand Prix and narrowing the gap between himself and Verstappen to 14 points. Norris led for much of the race, and regained the advantage shortly after a late stop for a set of fresh rubber.
But rain began to fall on part of the track with around five laps to go, and while its increasing intensity meant most drivers pitted for treaded tyres, Norris believed he could stay out on slicks and overruled the team's request for him to do the same. The Dutchman was later penalised for the incident, with a three-place grid penalty to be applied at Sochi. With both those cars retired, McLaren swept to a very popular one-two victory, with Ricciardo taking the win and finally showing his form of old.
It's the new shortest ever F1 grand prix, lasting just three laps over eight minutes, all run behind a safety car with no overtaking, due to torrential rain. His championship rival, though, in a damaged Red Bull had a worse afternoon and only scored a single point. The Englishman started from the grid alone, with fellow countryman George Russell somehow getting the jump on everyone else in the pitlane. Russell's Williams slowed halfway round the lap, though, allowing Ocon's Alpine to lead while Hamilton pitted, putting him in 15th on lap five. However, the real drama came in the latter part of the race, when leader Max Verstappen suffered a tyre blowout at high speed on lap 45 of 51, becoming the second driver after Aston Martin's Lance Stroll to suffer the same issue.
That triggered a red flag, with Red Bull's Sergio Perez and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton lining up on the first row of the grid. That left Max Verstappen on pole, enabling him to take a lead from the start that he never looked like relinquishing. It was a notable off-day for Mercedes, with world champion Lewis Hamilton finishing seventh and Bottas forced to retire after mechanics were unable to remove his front-right tyre during a pitstop.
The Ferrari of Carlos Sainz came in second while Lando Norris claimed his second podium of the season, in third. For the entire 2021 F1 season, Channel 4 will broadcast highlights of every qualifying and race of each event. The highlights will also be available on Channel 4's on demand catch up services. Channel 4 will have the Sky commentary and analysis teams, but the deal means that fans without access to Sky Sports will also be able to watch the historic race live.
A straight shootout between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will decide the destination of the 2021 drivers' championship. Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit has undergone a series of changes in a bid to make the Formula One season finale even more exciting for drivers and fans. That growing archive includes past grands prix and highlights packages, season reviews going back to the 1970s, plus documentaries about drivers, teams and the sport's tech. You can expect to see a couple of Formula 2 drivers from Red Bull's long-running academy programme in action, including Juri Vips and Liam Lawson . McLaren will welcome IndyCar star Pato O'Ward, after he fulfilled a bet with team boss Zak Brown by winning his first race in the series earlier this year (he's spent some time in the simulator and been for a seat fitting already).
Sky Sports has aired Formula 1 live and without ad breaks in the UK since 2013, on a dedicated channel, and will continue to do so in 2022. Its grand prix weekend coverage also covers the FIA's feeder series, Formula 2 and Formula 3. If you're in the UK and you missed out on Channel 4's grand prix highlights and can't or don't want to take Sky, you can also catch up on its All4 streaming service. What does all this mean for the championship after a close, dramatic and often controversial season?
Will Max win his first ever drivers' title, or will Lewis add an eighth to his record-equalling haul? All will be revealed this weekend – and here's how to keep in tune with the action. You used to be able watch races live on RTL Germany but Sky Germany now has exclusive rights to show live races in Germany as well.
Verstappen will have to beat Hamilton in Abu Dhabi to claim the drivers' title, so it should be a thrilling showdown. Of course, you're here because you want to know when the race starts and how to watch it. So without further ado, here's everything you need to know about watching the action on TV and online in the UK. But - spoiler alert - the result, with Lewis Hamilton winning and Max Verstappen coming second , means the pair will go to the final race in Abu Dhabi pretty much as the season started, level on points. However, only one practice session took place on Friday at Silverstone, with the traditional three-part qualifying session moving to Friday evening.
For now, the championship battle between Hamilton and Verstappen, Mercedes and Red Bull is keeping UK fans engaged as the series returns to action following the summer break in Belgium. While the championship battle between Hamilton and Verstappen is bringing additional viewers to Sky's live offering, Channel 4's highlights offering is not seeing any positive impact. At the other end of the spectrum, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix brought in 1.24 million viewers. The figure for Emilia Romagna is low in the context of the season so far, yet identical to last year's Emilia Romagna race on Sky, showing how much their audience have jumped. With a 52-point advantage, Fabio Quartararo is odds on favourite to win his first MotoGP World Championship.
As always, live coverage of every session airs on BT Sport 2, with highlights airing on ITV4. Live coverage of the W Series airs across More4 and Channel 4, the Saturday race airing on More4 with the season finale airing on Channel 4. The 2021 championship fight is going down to the wire, in one of the most intense Formula 1 seasons in years, as both drivers go into the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix level on 369.5 points. Not the best day for Mercedes, though, with Red Bull coming within a single point in the constructors' championship. It was an error that cost him his first victory, with Hamilton slipping by on the final lap to claim an historic 100th race win and return to the top f the driver's championship. Verstappen came in a lap later but a wheel change issue lost him time, and after Hamilton pitted the two championship rivals arrived at turn one side-by-side.
Wheels touched and the Red Bull mounted the Mercedes, with replays showing Hamilton's life was clearly saved by his rollover loop and Halo device, as Verstappen's rear wheel came down on the British driver's cockpit. Max Verstappen delighted his home fans, who turned the Zandvoort grandstands into a sea of orange, by taking pole position and the race victory on Sunday. He led almost all the way on Sunday, only dropping to second behind Bottas after his pit stop. After a poor qualifying performance in San Marino, Valtteri Bottas earned a spot at the front of the grid for the Portuguese Grand Prix in Portimão. Both Mercedes started well, with Bottas building a comfortable lead over second-placed Hamilton until a crash between Alfa Romeo teammates Antonio Giovanazzi and Kimi Raikkonen brought out the safety car.
Another action-packed race saw Hamilton start on pole, only to fall victim to a second-gear lunge from Verstappen on the rain-soaked first lap. Attempting to lap George Russell on the 31st lap of the race Hamilton fell further back, after struggling to find grip on a still-wet track, ending up in the gravel and dropping to eighth. In a thrilling season opener we saw the rivalry between Hamilton and Verstappen as close as it's ever been, with the two drivers swapping the lead throughout the race. Now their winner-takes-all battle will be shown live on Channel 4, as well as on Sky Sports, which hosts all F1 races through its subscription services, having reportedly paid over £1bn for a five-year deal back in 2019. Ahead of what promises to be another enthralling race this weekend, here is a look at what time is F1 qualifying and the details of how to watch Abu Dhabi GP live in India, the US and the UK. We know that even the most ardent F1 fan is not going to get to travel to more than a handful of Grands Prix each season – that's why we like to make sure you can catch an F1 broadcast from almost anywhere in the world.