Stroll soon came into the pits as Aston Martin was enduring a tough weekend pace-wise, but he was the only driver to make a stop in what Pirelli had deemed the pit window for those starting on softs. When Perez came in on lap 23 for a set of mediums, it opened up the potential for an ambitious one-stop, although a slow left rear change meant he lost three seconds and dropped back from Hamilton.
Verstappen came in two laps later and Mercedes was able to extend on the medium compound, clearly one-stopping when Hamilton switched to hards on lap 29. Russell followed suit on lap 34 but the top four remained fairly comfortably spread out, and the big focus was on whether Red Bull could go to the end or would need to stop again.
“I was speaking in strategy about us taking a risk and I had a gut feeling [Red Bull] would be on the soft to start with,” Hamilton said. “When we took the blankets off everyone around us was on the softs and we were on the mediums. At that moment I thought that we may be in trouble, but it’s a long, long race so I thought they may be on a two-stop.
“But that medium tyre just had no drop-off, so ultimately I think they were on the right tyre strategy.”
Hard tyre proved the wrong move for Hamilton and Mercedes
Mercedes
While that played out, it was in the fight for the lesser points that a radically different strategy was unfolding. Daniel Ricciardo ran as high as seventh and at decent pace, reaching lap 44 before making his switch from mediums to softs. That suggested Red Bull could get to the end, but also meant there was going to be some overtaking…
Unfortunately for Ricciardo, his first attempt saw him make contact with Yuki Tsunoda at Turn 6 when trying to take 11th place, forcing Tsunoda into retirement and earning himself a 10-second time penalty.
“I saw a replay, I obviously take responsibility but I don’t think it was that black and white,” Ricciardo said. “I held the apex, I honestly didn’t plan on actually overtaking him, I just wanted to keep him a little wide to then get him on the exit as I definitely had a much better tyre, so I was just doing what I could to set him up.”
A bruising encounter with Tsunoda but Ricciardo showed that he hasn’t lost his touch for overtaking
Xavi Bonilla / DPPI
With no damage to Ricciardo’s car, it was still a much better tyre, and his pace was eye-catching. Six laps after the collision, he was allowed to pass team-mate Norris for tenth. Then Bottas was dispatched with ease, and Ricciardo set off after the Alpines ahead.
As Fernando Alonso — the lead of the two Alpine cars — had to let Hamilton and Perez through, Ricciardo managed to follow Ocon in jumping the Spaniard, and one lap later was back into seventh place. He had nine laps to pull out the ten seconds he was to be penalised with post-race, and duly did so to ensure he wouldn’t lose a position at the flag.
