Lewis Hamilton couldn’t do anything

For the first time since 2014, a Mercedes did not lead at the time the lights went out. But when it came to the first corner, history was respected: Lewis Hamilton slipped into the lead, thanks to a better start and resisted Max Verstappen’s move, both on the straight and at the exit of the first corner.

During the entire first relay, the seven-time world champion was unable to shake off his title rival as the latter remained in the DRS zone for a long time. However, once again, the Mercedes’ top speed allowed its driver to easily maintain the lead.

However, he chose not to immediately follow Max Verstappen when he stopped in the pits, but rather to extend his stint by three laps. When he returned to the track after his pit stop, he was six seconds behind the leader. He was then able to make up ground gradually. It was at this point that the Red Bull Batavian dove back into the pit lane.

Lewis Hamilton then tried once again to extend his stint to the maximum, a strategy that he has mastered in recent seasons. Red Bull tried to destabilize him by quickly making the second pit stop for Sergio Perez, but the Mexican was too far away to ultimately have an impact on the course of the race.

Once he mounted his second set of hard tires, he gave it his all to climb back to the top. Initially, his pit wall predicted a pass three laps from the end. However, between theory and practice, it had to be acknowledged that the dirty air created by the Red Bull prevented him from returning to the fast “S” section at the start of the race, which didn’t allow him to be in the DRS zone.

The #44 had to admit defeat: First of all, congratulations to Max! I gave it my all but I couldn’t do much better. His only consolation was to set the fastest lap in the race, which allowed him to concede only six points to Max Verstappen and have “only” 12 points behind.