Lewis Hamilton converted his 100th Pole position into his 98th race win. Verstappen seemed to control the race but lost out to Mercedes’ superb strategy call.
Storming Red Bull
Verstappen got off the line superbly to pull alongside Hamilton into turn 1. There was almost contact between the two, but Hamilton backed out, handing the lead to the Red Bull. Behind, Leclerc made a superb move through turn 3 to take 3rd from Bottas.
Verstappen immediately broke the DRS barrier and he and Hamilton stormed away from the Ferrari in 3rd. By lap 6 they had a 7 second gap. The two championship contenders started to switch fastest laps, but the gap remained at 1.5s.
On lap 8, Tsunoda ground to a halt on the new turn 10, causing double waved yellows. This soon turned to a safety car. Giovinazzi attempted to make the most of this with a pitstop, but there was calamity in the pit lane. The front left tyre going on had a puncture and they had to change the entire set to avoid incurring a penalty.
The safety car came in on lap 10 and Verstappen replicated his superb start, storming away from Hamilton. Stroll had a superb side-by-side battle with Alonso to take 10th.
By the time DRS was reactivated Verstappen had broken the DRS barrier again, keeping his Red Bull safe from attack. The two drivers were giving it absolutely everything.
Pit Stop Drama
The race was predicted to be a one stop and the soft starting drivers started coming to the pits after lap 20. Bottas was the first of the front runners to pit in an attempt to finally break free of Leclerc.
Verstappen blinked first and pitted on lap 24. He had a very slow stop however, giving the advantage to Hamilton. Verstappen drove his Red Bull incredibly hard for the first few laps and it was calculated that he had made up the time lost after 3 laps. Hamilton was staying out for the long run.
Hamilton pitted on lap 28 and, despite a quick stop, the 7 time champion came out 6s behind the Red Bull. Hamilton immediately started pumping fastest laps and was soon closing the gap to the car in front.
By lap 34, Hamilton was in DRS territory and now had an opportunity to take back the lead.
Shockingly, Hamilton pitted on lap 43 taking the entire grid by surprise. Verstappen stayed out and it was now a dash to the line. Hamilton had a 26 second gap and 26 laps to close it down. He’d done it before in Hungary in 2019, could he do it again?#
Closing the gap
It was good start, Hamilton was averaging around 1.6s a lap quicker, reeling in Verstappen. But he soon came to the back of his team-mate, Bottas. Bottas was given the command to not hold up his team-mate, but didn’t move out of the way immediately, costing Hamilton time. With the aid of DRS he eventually found his way past, but had to force the overtake.
Bottas pitted a lap later, but conceded 3rd to Leclerc in the process. After setting the fastest lap, Bottas was soon behind the Ferrari. The overtake came into turn 1 on lap 57.
With 9 laps to go, Hamilton had managed to close the gap to 5 seconds, an incredible effort from the Briton. By lap 60, Hamilton was in the DRS zone and hounding Verstappen for the lead. By turn 1, the lead was his, with 6 laps to spare.
Verstappen bolted on the softs and came out 5s ahead of Bottas in 3rd. However, Bottas was caught up attempt to lap cars currently in a huge midfield battle. This extended Verstappen’s advantage.
Stroll won the afforementioned battle, racing hard against Alonso for the last championship point. However, Gasly soon stole this from the Canadian with a great move into turn 1.
The cars stayed in formation until the end of the race, meaning Hamilton extended his lead at the top of the championship. Verstappen came a dejected 2nd while Bottas came an unremarkable 3rd. Leclerc drove superbly to take 4th ahead of Perez. Ricciardo’s bounce back was rewarded with a strong 6th, fending of Sainz in 7th. Norris made it another double points finish for McLaren while Ocon and Gasly picked up the last championship points.
Lewis Hamilton has yet again taken a supreme victory. While the championship still has a long way to go, Red Bull may now be starting to realise quite how big of a task they have infront of them.
- Hamilton
- Verstappen +15.841
- Bottas +26.610
- Leclerc +54.616
- Perez +63.671
- Ricciardo +73.768
- Sainz +74.670
- Norris + 1 Lap
- Ocon + 1 Lap
- Gasly + 1 Lap
- Stroll + 1 Lap
- Raikkonen + 1 Lap
- Vettel + 1 Lap
- Russell + 1 Lap
- Giovinazzi + 1 Lap
- Latifi + 1 Lap
- Alonso + 1 Lap
- Schumacher + 2 Laps
- Mazepin + 2 Laps
- Tsnuoda RET
Featured Image Credit: @F1 Official Twitter
