Hamilton & Verstappen crash, Wolff smashes headphones: 2021's bonkers Saudi Arabia GP

The Saudi Arabian Grand Prix takes place this weekend and, if it’s half as dramatic as the inaugural race at the Jeddah Street Circuit last year, we’re in for quite the spectacle.

The 2022 Formula 1 season got underway last weekend with the Bahrain Grand Prix, and it was Charles Leclerc’s day as he led home a Ferrari one-two from team-mate Carlos Sainz, with Lewis Hamilton finishing third and reigning champion Max Verstappen suffering a retirement.

Indeed, the Hamilton v Verstappen epic that dominated 2021 is yet to renew for this year, with the Red Bull seemingly having a performance edge over the Mercedes and a repeat of their battle from 2021 might well be unlikely around the streets of Jeddah this weekend.

That, though, might be for the best in terms of Toto Wolff and Christian Horner’s blood pressure with the 2021 Saudi race proving a number of dramatic moments as the Lewis v Max rivalry hit new heights in what was the penultimate race of the campaign.

Eventually, Hamilton won the Grand Prix but not before we’d had multiple restarts, a dramatic crash involving Leclerc, Sergio Perez, George Russell and Nikita Mazepin, and an all-out war between Verstappen and Hamilton for the lead, which saw the Dutchman and the Briton fighting tooth and nail, to the point Lewis called Max “f***ing crazy” over the radio.

The ultimate flashpoint, meanwhile, saw Verstappen trying to give Hamilton the lead after being ruled to have forced Lewis off of the track, and the two collided inexplicably.

Max had slowed down to let Lewis through, and before the DRS line so he could drop in behind and then try and re-overtake the Mercedes on the main straight.

Hamilton, though, after all the on-track fighting, appeared to suspect something was