On Saturday, Max Verstappen declared Red Bull’s era of dominance over.

On Sunday, he was proven right as, even though the Dutchman took his seventh victory of 2024, he was pushed hard by the late-charging Lando Norris. McLaren so nearly pulled off a strategy masterclass, delaying both his pit stops to give him a tyre advantage at the end which he used to take the fight to the championship leader.

It wasn’t quite enough in the end as Verstappen did just enough to hold off the hard-pushing Briton. Behind them, Lewis Hamilton secured his first podium finish since last year’s Mexican Grand Prix, ending a painful 12-race absence from the top three.

The start was billed as a desperate dash down to the first corner for Norris and Verstappen. Few predicted George Russell would sweep past both of them to snatch the lead, but that’s exactly what happened as the Mercedes man got the better of the squabbling front row-sitters.

That made it two races in a row in which the 26-year-old has led a Grand Prix. But it was short-lived this time as, at the beginning of lap three, Verstappen used DRS down the start-finish straight to close in on Russell, feint to the inside before sweeping around the outside of the Mercedes.

Russell was soon out of DRS range and it became critical for Norris to clear his compatriot quickly if he was going to be able to keep the pressure on the Red Bull racer. But he was finding it difficult to close in on the Mercedes and, 10 laps later, he was still hovering around a second behind.

Further back, Hamilton held on to fourth place because the two Ferraris on his tail were too busy fighting each other. Charles Leclerc started ahead of Carlos Sainz but ended up behind the Spaniard, who was not impressed after receiving contact from his team-mate as he went around the outside of turn one.

On lap 16 Norris was freed as Mercedes pulled Russell into the pit lane for a change of tyres. But it took two attempts to bolt on the rear-right which cost him valuable seconds and almost allowed Sainz, who pitted at the same time, to overtake him in the pit lane.

It also presented an opportunity for Norris to pit and perhaps come back out ahead of the Mercedes. But when that plan was put to him by his McLaren race engineer, the Briton showed where his mentality was at by replying: “No, I think we need to go and get Max.”

Frustratingly for him, though, just a few seconds after he sent that message, Verstappen dove into the pit lane for fresh rubber. Norris was left in temporary lead of the race, but the gap to those who had changed tyres was falling with every lap and McLaren were gambling on fresher tyres later in the race to make up for the time and net places they were losing.

This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
Watch F1 live

Watch Formula One on Sky Sports
£22 a month

Catch all the action from Formula One on Sky Sports and get exclusive access to races, qualifying and much more for every Grand Prix. From Max Verstappen to Lewis Hamilton, you won’t miss a lap on Sky Sports.

SKY
Watch it here

When he pitted on lap 24, he was behind not only Verstappen and Russell but also Hamilton and Sainz. But he had fresher tyres than all of them and soon set about reeling them in with the extra grip he had as a result. As an example, it took him just three laps to get past Sainz before he set his sights on the two Mercedes.

Just over half distance, after a protracted battle with Russell, Norris was back in second place and eight seconds down the road from Verstappen. And Red Bull pulled the trigger on their second stop with 21 laps remaining, by which point Norris had closed the gap to 4.4 seconds.

McLaren stuck with their strategy, again keeping the 24-year-old out for several more laps to make sure he had a tyre advantage at the end. And when he did pit, crucially, the team managed to get him back out narrowly ahead of Russell and in clean air in which he could hunt down the championship leader.

The gap was closing all the time but it was becoming more and more apparent with each passing lap that Norris was going to run out of opportunities. In the end, he was within two-and-a-half seconds and fumed at himself over the radio over his poor start which he felt cost him the victory.