Lewis Hamilton may have lost F1 title due to brake fire - Michael Masi was 'screwed over'

Lewis Hamilton may have lost the 2021 F1 world title after Nicholas Latifi's brakes caught fire in the immediate aftermath of his crash at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. That's the verdict of F1 pundit Karun Chandhok who has claimed FIA race director Michael Masi was "screwed over" by the fire as it took marshals longer to clear up the wreckage. It meant the safety car had to be left out "longer than originally planned", creating confusion around whether the lapped cars could overtake Hamilton.

Chandhok added the delay also meant the race could no longer be red-flagged as rules around the minimum restart time had been exceeded.

Speaking to Express Sport, he said: "I have come back this year and had a few conversions and phone calls with people.

"I think what happened was Latifi crashed and Masi had a choice, at that point you do a safety car or red flag.

"He looked at the incident and thought, 'that should be relatively quick to clear up'.

READ MORE: FIA confirm Masi may be sacked after Hamilton and Mercedes complaints

"There is a recovery vehicle right there, there is an escape road right there, it should be a quick recovery so there should be a safety car.

"That is fine, that is not an unusual decision to have made.

"I think where he got a bit screwed over really is that the brakes caught fire on the car as they were trying to take it off the track

"So the marshals had to jump on and get the fire extinguisher out obviously, that dumped a load of stuff onto the track.

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"That, therefore, left Michael in a position of, 'ah I've committed to this part of the safety car, now this