On the 34th lap Hamilton was within 1.6sec – and Mercedes pulled the plug to bring him in. The stop was competitively quick at 2.7sec as his fresh tyres were fitted. His out-lap on his new rubber was sufficiently quicker than Verstappen’s in-lap on his old tyres that it looked likely Verstappen would have exited just behind. Only if Red Bull had matched its 2.1sec stop with Perez at the first stops might Verstappen have still come out in front without the delay. Its previous Verstappen stop had been 2.6sec.
As it happened, Verstappen’s 9sec wheelgun delay put him that far behind Hamilton and also lost him a position to Leclerc (who, like Verstappen, had been fitted with mediums).
Once Verstappen had used DRS to pass Leclerc he was 4.6sec behind Hamilton and there were 17 laps to go. Now we saw the true performance hierarchy between the two cars, just as we had in the first stint – and it showed the Red Bull to be a few tenths quicker once more. Its medium tyres would have given a small pace advantage in the first few laps anyway, but even as the gap between the mediums and hards narrowed with more laps (the medium’s calculated degradation rate was 0.22sec per lap compared to 0.1sec per lap for the hard), the Red Bull remained faster. As Hamilton pushed harder, so he locked up – twice at Turn 12, once at Turn 1.
Verstappen was within DRS range by lap 49. Hamilton used his battery deployment to remain ahead for a couple more laps before he no longer had that extra energy. The Mercedes power unit was derating just as Verstappen got DRS down the back straight into Turn 12 with five laps to go. With a 40km/h advantage, Verstappen retook the lead, Hamilton hampered by vibrating mirrors not allowing him to know exactly where his rival was until he was alongside. The fight continued for a couple of laps before Hamilton’s tyres cried enough.
Verstappen ran out a comfortable winner from Hamilton, Leclerc, Perez and Russell, with the latter setting fastest lap after pitting late for a set of soft tyres. The intrepid Alonso was a remarkable seventh after rejoining last from his crash, only passed on the last lap by Lando Norris’ McLaren. But he was subsequently penalised for running much of the distance without his right-hand mirror.
Although pleased with his strong showing, Hamilton was keeping things in perspective. “Max had an 11-second stop, and he was behind Charles, to have got past Charles, and to have caught up six seconds, and pulled three seconds ahead of me, shows some serious speed.”