Verstappen overtook title rival Lewis Hamilton on the fina🤪l lap of Sunday’s hugely dramatic and controversial Ab✨u Dhabi Grand Prix to clinch his first world championship. 

Red Bull gambled on a late safety car by pitt♍ing Verstappen for soft tyres, giving him a significant tyre advantage over Hamilton for the last-lap sprint to the flag after the contentious late safety c♌ar restart. 

Verstappen ultimately triumphed with a lunge at Turn 5 to end Hamilton’s run of five successive world titles and become F1’💧s first-ever Dutch world champion.&nꦇbsp;

“It’s unbelievable,” Verstappen said after the race. “I tried the whole race, I kept fighting and then of course t🔜hat opportunity in the last lap. It’s incredℱible.

“I am still hav🐼ing a cramp… It’s insane. I don’t know what to say. These guys here, my team and of course Honda as well, they deserve it.

“I love🐲 ♚them so much and I really, really enjoy working them already since 2016 but this year has been incredible.

“I think they know I love them and I hope we can do this for 10, 15 years together. There’s no reason to change, ever. I want to stay with them for the rest of my life. I hope they let me. It’⛎s insane.”

Verstappen also praised Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez for his brilliant defence against Hamilton to hold the seven-time world champion up earlier in the race and bring the Dutchman back into p🐈lay. 

“Finally a bit of luck for me,” he said. “Insane. I also w🌊ant to say a big thank you to Checo, he was driving his heart out today, it was great teamwork and he’s an amazing team-mate.”