Over the past two months, Ferrari seems to have figured something out in their car and returned to their season-opening form as the strongest team on the grid. Unfortunately, all that speed has largely only served to put them in position to lose races in increasingly unique ways.
This weekend, it was strategy. Charles Leclerc handled the first stint well, sticking with pole sitter and race leader George Russell to get within striking distance when Russell stopped earlier to get off his soft tires before pitting a few laps later to go straight from the preferred medium compound tires to a second set of medium tires. Leclerc then moved past Russell for the race lead and seemed well equipped to take the race win, but the two straight stops for medium tires and 30 laps remaining in the race forced him onto the hard tire that had struggled all day when he made his second and final stop.
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton used exceptional opening laps to move from tenth and seventh on the grid to fourth and fifth by the day's first stop. Verstappen moved past Hamilton in the process of the pair's second stops, then Sainz quickly after his second stop. When Leclerc came out on the colder hard tires, Verstappen pounced. He the spun on his own, but he kept the car out of the wall and kept his tires clean to make another move for the net lead a few laps later.
The floor fell out of Leclerc's race quickly. He was passed by George Russell on track, then stopped just 15 laps into his planned final stint to switch to soft tires and lost spots to both Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez in the process. Leclerc caught Perez just before a late virtual safety car, but he never had a good chance to make a move for the spot. By using the preferred compound in the race's first two stints, Ferrari turned what seemed to be a winning car into a sixth place finish for Charles Leclerc.
Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, soared on his own final stint with the soft tire. He still came out seven seconds short of Verstappen after fighting through traffic, but Hamilton moved from fourth to second in the closing laps to grab yet another runner-up finish. If not for Verstappen's sensational run from tenth to a win, his move from seventh to second would be the drive of the day. Combined with George Russell's solid but disappointing day to take third from pole, Mercedes has once again secured a double podium in what remains a winless season.
Today's race marked the final event before a now-traditional Summer break, so Formula 1 will not race again until the last weekend of August. After a brilliant drive by Max Verstappen and a disastrous run by Charles Leclerc and Ferrari, both the driver's and constructor's championships are beginning to look very difficult to bring back into play with just nine races remaining.
