Lewis Hamilton confirms he nearly quit F1 after Abu Dhabi controversy that cost him record eighth title

Sir Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he came very close to quitting Formula 1 following the controversial end to last year’s championship.

After a long and bitter title race with Max Verstappen, Hamilton looked set to claim a record-breaking eighth world championship at the final grand prix of the season at Abu Dhabi.

However, with just a handful of laps remaining, the safety car was deployed and upon the restart then-race director Michael Masi incorrectly and controversially allowed only the lapped cars between Hamilton and Verstappen to pass through, thus enabling the Red Bull driver, who was on fresh tyres, to easily pass the Mercedes man on the last lap and win the title.

The rules at the time clearly stipulated that it should have been every lapped car or none at all, and that the race should not have restarted, but despite Mercedes launching an appeal the results stood although the backlash to the incident remains just as strong now as it was in December.

As the events unfolded, Hamilton said on his team radio that the race had been ‘manipulated’, but the 37-year-old has remained very quiet on the matter since then, with some speculating over the winter that the Brit was considering walking away from the sport.

And now, in an interview with Vanity Fair, Hamilton has admitted that he really did nearly retire, saying: ‘I, for sure, considered whether I wanted to continue.

‘I knew what had happened. I knew what decisions had been made and why. Yes, I knew something wasn’t right.

<p lang=«en» dir=«ltr» xml:lang=«en»>ON THE SEPTEMBER COVER OF VANITY FAIR ð¥ð¥ð¥ Talked all things past, present, and future. It’s an honour, thank you @VanityFair ~ pic.twitter.com/7fKiDdHmq2

‘You see things start to unfold, and my worst fears came