Although team-mate Sergio Perez lined up alongside Verstappen on the second row, he was in even worse shape. With only one set of softs he was going to be obliged to run a soft/medium/medium sequence and the medium was set to be just as bad as it had been on Saturday.
The restart from a first lap safety car was a great opportunity for Verstappen to pounce upon Hamilton’s second place, but there was no co-operation available from Hamilton to allow his move in the Senna Esses to work and they inevitably collided once more. Restarting near the back after taking on a new nose, Verstappen’s pace as he came through was strong but not dazzling. The late safety car (for Lando Norris’s broken-down McLaren) allowed him to pick off Esteban Ocon, Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas. As he chased Fernando Alonso’s fifth place, Perez was instructed to let him by. When Verstappen failed to catch Alonso he was supposed to give the place back to Perez but for his own reasons refused to.
Ferrari?
Ferrari partly took itself out of the equation by sending out Charles Leclerc on inters in Q3 on a slicks-ready track, with the rain arriving a couple of laps too late. That left him starting 10th. From there to sixth and from there to the Turn 8 barriers after being clipped by Norris and from there to the pitlane for a new nose and tyres, rejoining last.
After making steady progress through the field, his distant sixth was converted into an opportunistic fourth, his pass on Perez (his rival for runner-up in the championship) aided by a big tyre advantage because of the latter’s mediums.
Sainz’s podium was well deserved from seventh on the grid, an early stop to have a visor tear-off removed from a brake duct obliging him to three-stop, but with better pace than Perez and the help of the safety car there was no stopping him from prevailing in that battle.
Best of the rest
This was variously Norris, Vettel, Alonso (great pace from near the back), Bottas, and finally Alonso again. With Ocon also in the points and both McLarens retiring, Alpine has fourth place in the constructors’ within its grasp.