Nothing stops Max Verstappen. Even when Red Bull misses the pits and forces him to an unexpected comeback, the Dutchman does not tremble. Coming out third after his second stop, he swallowed Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to win his thirteenth race of the season. He thus joins Michael Schumacher (2004) and Sebastian Vettel (2013) who jointly held this record. But he still has three chances to do better than the two German drivers.
Quickly rid of Carlos Sainz, who got off to a bad start from pole position, and who retired at the end of the first lap after a collision with George Russell and a hydraulic leak, Verstappen quietly led this Grand Prix and followed Lewis Hamilton’s strategy to contain his rival behind him. And disaster happened. At least that’s what we thought. Returning to the pits at the end of the 35th lap, he stayed there for eleven seconds due to a gun problem at his left front wheel.
Leclerc did not expect so much by following the double world champion to the pits and he then came out just in front of him. But he could never take the lead against the superior pace of the Red Bull and gave up three laps later. In front, Hamilton finally saw his first victory of the season. This was without counting on Verstappen’s desire to honor the memory of Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull who died on Saturday. Six laps from the end, he dove inside at the end of the straight to regain the lead and keep it until the end.
Leclerc was condemned to a comeback after his penalty of ten places. The Monegasque got off to a good start and quickly chained overtaking to find himself a time ahead of Verstappen before the first safety car on the 18th lap. This is the moment he chose to return to the pits and thus find himself fourth behind Verstappen, Hamilton and Sergio Perez. On a circuit deemed not conducive to the interventions of the safety car, there were two in a row. The race barely restarted after the spin of Valtteri Bottas who found himself stuck in the gravel, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll clashed violently and the Aston Martin of the Canadian came to rest in the middle of the track with debris all around.
A Sunday in hell for the French
It was on the 30th lap that the Monegasque found the opening on Perez and was never worried again by the Mexican. This podium allows him to recover second place in the Drivers’ Championship in favor of the Red Bull driver (267 points against 265). As for the French Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly, they will have lived through hell until the end. Starting from the pits and eleventh in the end, Ocon suffered from the comparison with his teammate Fernando Alonso. Starting 17th after his crash with Stroll, the Spaniard finished the race full of panache to finish seventh.
Pierre Gasly, he will have animated the day of the commissioners. He first stood out by leaving too much space with the car in front of him under safety car conditions and received a five-second penalty to perform during his pit stop. But this was not managed correctly by AlphaTauri and it was therefore ten seconds that were inflicted on the Frenchman and added to his final time.
Besides Alonso, the former world champions are doing well since Sebastian Vettel was the great architect of the end of the race. Overwhelmed by his team like Verstappen when a fifth place seemed to reach out to him, he started from below. Gradually recovered, he made a sublime last overtake on Kevin Magnussen on the last lap to finish behind Alonso.