Lewis Hamilton Did It Again

Formula 1's balance of power has shifted. After four race weekends, it has become clear that gains by Red Bull Racing and losses by Mercedes AMG F1 have left the front of the grid somewhat equal. The direct result of this is that both Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton now have a similar chance before every race. So far, Hamilton has won three of four. He has also yet to finish worse than second.

When you win 98 races, the sample gets large enough that patterns start to emerge. Hamilton wins in a wide variety of ways: some of those are as simple as running away from pole and never looking back, some may come down to a little bit of luck, and some simply require Hamilton and his team to run the correct strategy and wait for their moment. This was one of those races.

Hamilton started from pole, but a bold and well-executed move by Verstappen saw him inside Hamilton into turn 1 and into the lead by turn 3. The Red Bull had actually begun to pull away by a few car lengths when Yuki Tsunoda, in a Red Bull-owned AlphaTauri, slowed to a halt on track. The safety car came out to retrieve Tsunoda, and, when the race resumed, Verstappen re-built his gap on Hamilton. He stopped for his set of mediums a few laps before Lewis, building what was briefly a comfortable lead, but Hamilton's slightly fresher tires allowed him to catch the leader and enter DRS range with just under 30 laps to go.

This is when Mercedes saw that they did not have enough, and decided to make the bold call that changed the day.