Beyond the inevitable Verstappen, home hero Tsunoda stood out for us as he made his point (again) at the second Red Bull team
JAKE BOXALL-LEGGE
RED BULL
Started 1st -- -- -- -- -- -- Result 1st
9 Hardly his most vintage win; looked assured but never entirely secure. Nailed both start and restart, and preserved lead with consistent pace, but arguably drove within himself and let strategy do the work. Margin over Perez in qualifying and race not as gaping as previous 10/10 scores.
Started 2nd - -- -- Result 2nd
8 Did his job as support act well, qualifying a scant 0.066s away from Verstappen and finishing just 12.5s off. Took too much out of medium tyres to make up for Norris undercut, but reeled off lap times on hards that were comparable with Verstappen’s.
Early Degner 2 slip his only real mistake.
MERCEDES
Started 7th -- -- -- - - Result 9th
6 Team strategy cost Hamilton more than Russell, so willingly let his team-mate through. Disliked the hard tyre and felt early contact with Leclerc hindered him. Proved quicker than Russell on the medium stint at the end, but damage had already been done by poor opening stint.
Started 9th -- -- -- -- Result 7th
6 Had a bit of a job on his hands dragging out his stint on the hard tyre early on as pace was poor, and lacked consistency on his second set of hard tyres. Came into the race on the last set of mediums, but clumsy initial effort to pass Piastri arguably cost him a shot at Alonso in sixth.
FERRARI
Started 8th -- - -- -- - Result 4th
8 Lowly grid slot, but recovery on effectively a one-stopper was superb. Managed his medium tyres brilliantly with consistent laps, and pre-empted Norris’s second stop, which offered a chance at a podium. Hard-tyre stint also strong, but wisely didn’t interfere with Sainz to claim fourth.
Started 4th -- -- -- -- Result 3rd
8 Strong form continued with a patient yet aggressive performance. Shook out behind Norris and Russell after they undercut his opening pitstop, but waited for their tyres to wane to claim track position. Final stint was devastatingly fast, putting Norris and Leclerc to the sword.
McLAREN
Started 3rd -- -- -- -- Result 5th
8 Early undercut was powerful, but he could not overcome degradation, which denied a podium c
