In the beginning of the race, Verstappen was ahead. He kept getting further ahead, leading by more than six seconds until the first pit stops.
When drivers changed to harder tires, Norris didn’t seem to gain any advantage. He even lost some time passing Perez from Red Bull.
The gap stayed around six seconds, sometimes going up to seven. Norris seemed to be in trouble as Leclerc from Ferrari closed in on him.
But around 20 laps before the end, Norris suddenly started catching up to Red Bull, making the end of the race exciting.
From the outside, it seemed like Verstappen was having car problems, giving Norris a chance to catch up. But the truth was more complicated.
There were two things happening here. Verstappen’s tires were not working well, and Norris managed his tires carefully from the beginning.
Verstappen said, “It was like driving on ice. You could feel the tires losing grip.”
What was important was how Norris took care of his tires at the start of the second stint.
In modern F1, how you treat your tires at the start affects how they perform later. If you push too hard, it can hurt performance. But if you’re gentle, like Norris was, the tires perform better later.
McLaren’s team principal said, “The main thing was getting the tires to the right temperature. If they get too hot, performance drops a lot.”
Red Bull struggled because they didn’t test the hard tires much before the race. They didn’t run them for long on Friday, a day when they had trouble with the car’s setup.
Norris knew how to get the tires right, but he did more than just be patient. He had to understand what was happening and adjust.
He said, “As soon as I started to push, the tires didn’t feel right. I had to make changes to get them back in a good state.”
Also, Norris’s car wasn’t set up perfectly for the weather, making it harder for him.
He said, “We thought it would be colder. So I had to be gentle with the tires to avoid problems. But once I got into my rhythm, everything went well.”
Norris saw both strengths and weaknesses in McLaren’s performance. They had good race pace, but struggled more in hotter conditions.
He said, “Maybe we could have prepared better. But I’m happy with how things turned out.”
