Formula 1

MAX TRIED BUT THE LCH WINS AGAIN!

LCH was passed by Verstappen at Turn 1 on the opening lap, and spent the first stint of the race trailing the Red Bull driver, ultimately falling 5.5 seconds behind after pitting.

Hamilton was then able to close up to Verstappen on the medium tyres, and was set to overtake before Mercedes called him in for a second pitstop. With Red Bull committing Verstappen to a one-stop strategy, Hamilton was able to put his fresher tyres to good use, taking two seconds per lap out of the Dutchman to carve into the gap.

He ultimately overtook for the lead with seven laps remaining, clinching his third victory of the season in the process and moving 14 points clear at the top of the drivers’ championship.

MAX VERSTAPPEN, Finish Position: 2nd, Start Position: 2nd “I tried everything I could today and took the lead at Turn 1 but from there we were just lacking a bit of pace to Mercedes. Of course we wanted to win but I cannot feel too disappointed as I did everything I could out there and maximized the opportunities. Even if we had looked at another strategy and done a two stop and pitted before them, we wouldn’t have made the time up as they were just faster than us.

I know how fast I can go and where the limit of the car is and when they can do a free stop behind it is easy for them to do a different strategy. I pretty much knew that when he pitted for the second time that he would come back at me on the new tyres a bit like Hungary 2019 and although I did everything I could I was a bit of a sitting duck. The pace difference on the tyres made it an easy pass for Lewis and then I was able to at least keep second place and take Fastest Lap. It was just a day where we lacked a bit of pace and second was the best result possible so now we need to look at why they seem to have jumped ahead a bit in terms of race pace.”