How it unfolded
The two arrived tied on 369.5 points; Verstappen led on race wins, so if both failed to score he would be champion. Verstappen took pole on soft tyres but Hamilton passed at Turn 1 on lap one and pulled more than ten seconds clear — the race looked over. On lap 53 of 58 Nicholas Latifi's Williams hit the wall and the safety car was deployed. Red Bull immediately pitted Verstappen for fresh softs; Mercedes kept Hamilton out to preserve track position. Five lapped cars sat between them. Race director Michael Masi initially said lapped cars would not unlap themselves, then reversed that and allowed only those five through before restarting with one lap to go. Verstappen on new tyres passed Hamilton at Turn 5 and took his first world title. Mercedes' two protests were dismissed.
Why it still matters
The procedure mattered more than the result. The FIA removed Masi as race director, codified safety-car lapped-car rules, blocked teams from lobbying the race director on radio and introduced a remote operations centre. Sportingly, it ended Mercedes' eight-year run and opened Verstappen's four-title era, fixing in modern F1 how completely one stewarding call can flip an entire championship.