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Formula One fans across Asia and Australasia had a sleepless night watching the race that could have been the season climax but instead provided a last-minute equalizer that pushes Abu Dhabi to be the penalty-shoot out to decide a season of dogged determination, spectacular long-shots and own goals.

It's a fair bet that pretty much everyone involved in Formula One is in for a week of sleepless nights as the teams travel ten hours across the Middle East and unpack on Thursday ready for the Friday start.

And it all started when the teams arrived in Saudi Arabia and got a first proper look at the new Jeddah track.

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If there was any justice, there would have been three top steps on the podium in the 2021 Russian Grand Prix.

But that's not how it works.

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It is becoming increasingly clear that my earlier argument that, if F1 is serious about providing the closest racing and the best spectacle, it really should abandon the massive shift in car design that is, now, only eight (or less) races away. The new qualifying format creates ample opportunity for the grid to be turned on its head and that helps but, as the race in Zandvoort showed, the fact that the lower budget teams have now had the chance to catch up with the big spenders has brought most of the pack into contention, as McLaren's historic first and second demonstrated in Monza.

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Was it madness, bravery or simply feeling that all the bad stuff that could happen had already happened? Lewis Hamilton, so often almost dismissive of his achievements, is collecting records, awards and accolades with every race. But in Mexico Hamilton, directed to the place where the top three cars were parked despite finishing ninth, was beside himself with joy. Unable to give a proper interview to the persistent and increasingly irritated David Coulthard, all Hamilton wanted to to was to get back to his team. And so, as the crowd swarmed onto the track, he turned and ran. There was no personal security, no looking around: just Hamilton running the long way back without a care in the world. Now, perhaps, the world will start to like him.

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