For the first time in what feels like forever I am actually looking forward to the motor racing more than the football this weekend. I can’t remember the last time that happened, but we may be going back to the days when Elon Musk was more worried about the mortgage than Mars. The emergence of Max Verstappen over the past few seasons means Lewis Hamilton – who has almost entirely dominated the sport for the best part of a decade – now has a genuine title rival. And, incredibly, the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers go into today’s final Formula 1 race of the season in Abu Dhabi level on points, making it essentially a winner-takes-all event. To spice things up even further, if that were needed, the previous race in Saudi Arabia was packed with flashpoints and incidents between the two drivers, prompting Hamilton to call his rival a “crazy guy” and Max to shrug it all off in his enjoyably contemptuous style. It really is a flashback to the days when F1 was truly competitive and not just a procession of pretty cars that took place every couple of weeks. Obviously, given that they are level on points, whichever driver finishes in front of the other this afternoon will win the title.