Hamilton wins despite tire drama



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Hamilton resisted more than 60 pressure laps from Verstappen to retain his victory despite the fact that he had to handle softer tires than his pursuers.

Verstappen having failed to overtake the Mercedes and clear himself, despite a late dive at the chicane two laps from the end, he fell from second to fourth at the flag because of a penalty of five seconds.

Verstappen recovered him for an unsafe release in the pits that had preceded him from Bottas' second Mercedes, with which he made a slight contact and forced him into the wall.

Verstappen fell behind Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel, who completed the podium despite the need to make a second pit stop under the safety car after his contact with the wall caused a puncture.

Poleman Hamilton retained his lead from Bottas, despite Verstappen entering Bottas Ste Devote in the first round.

The leaders were in place for the first stint, interrupted by a safety car after Charles Leclerc – 15th in the wake of the Ferrari qualifying blunder – lining the debris track after a dramatic puncture.

Leclerc hit the inside wall of Rascasse and turned around after trying to overtake Nico Hulkenberg for 11th place.

He tried to continue but picked up a puncture and scattered a large amount of debris as the rubber fell to pieces throughout the lap.

Mercedes chose to put both cars under caution and Bottas returned behind Hamilton under security to try to leave a gap enough to not waste time.

When they stopped, Verstappen was released just as Bottas passed by, and although Verstappen had his nose in front of him, a small contact forced Bottas to kiss the wall on the right side.

The incident damaged the rim of the Bottas wheel and caused a slow puncture. However, with the safety car still in use, he left only behind Vettel in fourth place.

Once the race resumed, Verstappen pursued Hamilton for more than 60 laps, but was only close enough to tackle the five-time world champion in the last 10.

On lap 70, he peeked outside the hairpin but was not close enough to the doorkeeper's exit to make his way to Hamilton in the chicane.

On lap 76, he blew Hamilton, but Hamilton went through. Verstappen was locked up and they made a slight wheel-to-wheel contact – the front right of Verstappen to Hamilton's left-back – and Hamilton took the exit route, but both continued without damage.

Hamilton's victory extended his championship lead over Bottas to 17 points, while Vettel and Bottas were slightly adrift but less than five seconds later, which is crucial for Verstappen to be in fourth place.

His teammate Red Bull of Verstappen, Pierre Gasly, finished fifth, his best result since his stint in the senior team, and achieved the best lap by creating a gap enough to allow new cars to make a pit stop. free and late.

Behind, Carlos Sainz got his best result for McLaren in sixth place after choosing not to take the first safety car.

This strategy was taken over by Daniil Kvyat and Alex Albon, who used it wisely to finish seventh and eighth for Toro Rosso.

Daniel Ricciardo of Renault was ninth, with the midfielder at the front of the pack competing under the safety car.

Romain Grosjean, who opted for the same strategy as Sainz / Kvyat / Albon, completed the scorers for Haas.

Leclerc was the only one to leave the Grand Prix after trying to continue after his quick setback.

Shortly after the safety car, Antonio Giovinazzi hit Robert Kubica and spun the Williams.

The track was briefly blocked, blocking a few cars, but Kubica managed to back off and clear quickly, avoiding anything worse than localized yellow flags.

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