With his mediums beginning to blister, Hamilton had nowhere near the Red Bull’s traction out of Junção on lap 38 and Verstappen got strong into his slipstream and simply popped out of it at the top of the hill to pass the Mercedes even before the pit straight. Hamilton got DRS on the back straight and got a run going down to Turn Four but Verstappen had it covered and from there simply utilised his greater grip to pull away.
Ricciardo had assumed a temporary lead – with not quite enough of a gap to jump Vettel, who was able to speed up at the appropriate time to ensure the Red Bull came out behind after pitting for its softs on lap 39. So with everyone having stopped, Verstappen led going away from Hamilton, with Bottas 8sec back and being pressured intensely by Räikkönen. A couple of seconds back from there Vettel was still hanging on ahead of Ricciardo, Daniel a couple of times getting wheel-to-wheel through the first part of the Esses but without enough momentum to make it stick.
Leclerc remained dominant in the ‘best of the rest’ section, with Grosjean and his damaged Haas unable to offer a challenge. Gasly didn’t have the tyre usage to hold off the soft-tyred Magnussen or even the super-soft-shod Pérez and had been passed on track by both even before making an early stop. Magnussen would run very long on his harder tyres and emerge within 8sec of team-mate Grosjean, chasing him down on faster tyres for the last 30 laps.
Verstappen was 2.7sec ahead of Hamilton as they swooshed by on the 43rd lap.
The lapped Ocon, having done a long first stint on the softs, had just made his first pitstop – and been fitted with a set of supersofts. But only after a long delay as the right-rear proved reluctant to come off. That delay proved to be crucial to the outcome of the race.
Ocon exited close behind Verstappen on track, followed for a couple of laps but on his new supersofts could feel he was way quicker than the leader was choosing to go. He asked if he could un-lap himself – the team told him he should.
On lap 43, with the help of DRS, he challenged Verstappen into the Senna Esses, Max covering the inside to defend his track space. He mistakenly assumed that Ocon had tucked back in behind as they swept down the hill and he turned into the second part of the Esses. Ocon had instead chosen to continue to fight and so had no options left as the Red Bull turned in alongside him – and around they each went after a big hit. Ocon was later awarded a stop/go penalty for causing an avoidable accident.
“I went on the outside at Turn One,” said Ocon, “the same move I made on Fernando and on many others before, but Max didn’t give me any space. Once I was beside him I couldn’t just disappear, so we collided. But it was my corner and I had the right to the space.”
“Of course a backmarker can un-lap himself,” said Verstappen, “but he took an unnecessary amount of risk, especially against the race leader. They gave him the penalty for causing a collision so I think that says enough.”
Hamilton could barely believe his luck as he swept by back into a lead he thought he’d never see again. Verstappen, with much of the right side of the floor and bargeboards ripped off, got going again, around 6sec behind. Remarkably, not only was the car still functioning at all – it was still quicker than the tyre and engine-compromised Mercedes.
“I lost a lot of downforce,” related Verstappen. “I had to lock a lot of tools on the steering wheel but that was still not enough. But still the car was quick.”
He chipped away at the lead by two or three tenths each lap. Hamilton was keen to be given a little more power. Absolutely not, he was told. This all brought Räikkönen back into play, and he was steadily gaining on them both.
Ricciardo was still in hot pursuit of Vettel. On the 46th lap he came by the pits, DRS engaged, but still quite some distance behind. He informed the team over the radio: “I’m going to send it.”
With that remarkable ability he has to judge super-late braking points without locking a wheel, he simply ambushed the Ferrari and stole its fifth place into the Esses. Next target: Bottas, who was struggling again with front and rear blistering. With no threat from behind once Ricciardo had passed, Vettel was brought in for a free second stop and fitted with super-softs on the 53rdlap. If there was a safety car, he’d be in great shape.
Bottas held Ricciardo off for a while – until he ran out of overtaking mode allowances. Ricciardo pounced on the 59th lap, but Räikkönen’s third place was just out of reach. Bottas had enough of a margin over Vettel that he too could be brought in for a free second stop as soon as he was passed by the Red Bull. He was fitted with a new set of softs, on which he set the race’s fastest lap.
Verstappen chipped away at Hamilton’s lead, but not by enough to get within DRS range before the end. After 71 stressful laps, Hamilton had surely never been so relieved to see the chequer.
Verstappen could be satisfied with his recovery but his overriding emotion remained one of anger at Ocon – and the two had a shoving match in the weighing garage subsequently, for which Verstappen was reprimanded and ordered to serve two days FIA PR duty.
Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Bottas and Vettel completed the Class A finishers, with Leclerc taking his second ‘best of the rest’ finish of the season from Grosjean, Magnussen and Pérez.
Outside the top 10, there was something of a civil war at Toro Rosso as Hartley demanded that Gasly – on much older tyres and therefore much slower – be moved aside, with the Frenchman initially refusing to do so but eventually acceding. With his tyres in shreds, he was demoted a further place on the last lap by Sainz in the only surviving Renault – Hülkenberg having retired with an overheating engine.
Alonso’s choice of an early stop in an attempt at undercutting ahead backfired, allowing Sirotkin’s Williams and team-mate Vandoorne to get ahead, the latter after a few wheel-to-wheel moments. The Spaniard got back ahead of Sirotkin on the last lap but was subsequently demoted behind it again after a penalty for ignoring blue flags. He wasn’t in a great mood at the end of it all… Stroll finished last.
So, as Alonso’s Formula 1 career draws to a low-key close, his former team-mate and rival just keeps piling on the achievements. But of all those 72 victories, have any of them been as marginal as this one?