(Motorsports news) Max Verstappen won by a huge margin of 33.7 seconds over Lando Norris, who had to contend with a late scare from Sergio Perez for second before the Mexican faced off against Lewis Hamilton for third. Verstappen took the lead into the first corner because Hamilton was slower off the line than he was, despite his attempts to defend by attempting to bear right up the straight.
Oscar Piastri took the lead, tucked his McLaren down the inside, and came up for air with second as the two had chosen wider lines into Turn 1. Verstappen spent the first laps extending his lead before starting to stretch his freshly acquired car despite the variety of tyre management strategies being used in the 29C heat.
At the end of lap 17, Lando Norris stopped in the pits for a set of hard tyres after passing Hamilton for third on a challenging first lap for the seven-time champion. Piastri followed on the next lap. However, a quick out-lap allowed Norris to overtake his McLaren teammate and grab a net second position. The Briton’s subsequent laps around the track then made sure he could distance himself from his teammate.
Max Verstappen made his pit stop for the hard tyre at the end of lap 23, and Norris’s series of opening circuits on that compound helped to reduce the lead between the front two drivers to just 5.4 seconds. Verstappen was able to close the deficit and begin to go nearly a second per lap faster once he had mastered the hard tyre. Norris was unable to maintain that level of speed.
Max Verstappen was clearly 15 seconds ahead of Norris by the 40th lap, and the lead grew until McLaren decided to pit its lead driver at the conclusion of lap 44 for a new set of medium tires. Verstappen’s time on the track with the hard tyres was prolonged by Red Bull, and the Dutchman ran on them until lap 51 before changing to the mediums.
By the end of lap 53, the lead had narrowed to 10.9 seconds in Verstappen’s favor as Norris had been able to make the most of his own middle compound tyre, but a try at the quickest lap resulted in a 1m20.504s for Verstappen to declare victory. Thus, Red Bull’s 12 consecutive victories surpass McLaren’s 11 victories from 1988.
Sergio Perez overtook Hamilton during the second round of pit stops and then passed Piastri on lap 47, so Norris soon found himself struggling to hold him behind. As there were 15 laps left, Perez lagged behind by 6.3 seconds. Therefore, Norris had to speed up the pace in an effort to hold onto second. After receiving the hurry-up, he was able to widen the margin to 6.9 seconds, but as lapped Yuki Tsunoda got closer, he began to hurt, which allowed Perez to cut the distance in half over the course of the following two tours.
When the two were both engaged in traffic, Norris was able to stabilize and, after displacing Nico Hulkenberg, had enough clear track to partially regain his lead. With five circuits remaining, he had five seconds in hand. The late comeback by Hamilton, the Mercedes driver, who found remarkable speed toward the end of the race and chipped away at Perez despite his own traffic navigation, subsequently endangered Perez’s podium position.
With two laps to go, the gap between the two was just 1.8 seconds, but Hamilton was unable to maintain enough speed to have a shot at the podium. After the first round of pit stops, Piastri, who had started the race in second place, was unable to keep up the pace and dropped to fifth after Perez and Hamilton had cleared him to continue.
The current championship runner-up did not want to give up position and held Piastri off, who protested that he had not been given enough room, despite the Australian’s best efforts to keep Perez at bay by sticking around the outside at Turn 2.
After eliminating Carlos Sainz late in the race, George Russell moved up to sixth. He then gained another position when Charles Leclerc’s five-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane took effect. Sainz was unable to overtake Leclerc for a higher position, and the top 10 was completed by the Aston Martins driven by Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
Despite Piastri’s protests that he had not been allowed enough room, the current championship runner-up did not want to give up position and held him off. This was in spite of Piastri’s best efforts to block Perez by staying to the outside at Turn 2.
Late in the race, George Russell passed Carlos Sainz to move up to sixth. When Charles Leclerc’s five-second fine for speeding in the pit lane kicked in, he moved up another spot. The Aston Martins piloted by Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10, as Sainz was unable to pass Leclerc for a higher position.
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