Laudatory reviews for Verstappen: 'Then he was in control'

Norris was on the heels of Verstappen, who was using an alternative strategy, for almost the entire race. It was not made easy for the Dutchman, thanks in part to the British team's high straight-line speed. "During the second stint on the medium tyre, it was clear that McLaren was slightly quicker than Red Bull. I thought Red Bull would have the advantage through the last corner, but  I've got to say the McLaren today looked absolutely superb through there, and there was never a lap when Lando wasn't plus two or three kilometres an hour quicker through the speed trap, and over the start-finish line, for that matter, than Max Verstappen. So, the pressure again this season was on Red Bull and Verstappen constantly, but he handled this well," Windsor said.

Further on in the race, the pressure also remained on Verstappen. "They brought Max in on lap 45 for his new set of soft tyres, and as I said at the start of the video, you would have thought at that moment that all bets were off because here was Max refreshed on a new set of softs to take him through to the finish of the race, and Lando was going to have to go to a scrub set of softs. But Lando then responded, and suddenly this nine-second gap was going down to eight to seven to six."

Windsor pinpoints key moment

But in the end, Verstappen proved calm and won the race by about two seconds. According to Windsor, a moment stood out that showed the three-time world champion was in control. "There was an amusing interlude, cameo, whatever you want to call it, a couple of laps later when they got onto Max's radio and said, ‘Strat 10, Max, Strat 10.' And he said, ‘I can't hear you, Strat 10 or Strat 2?’ Very calmly, actually, I sounded more agitated than Max's response! I suppose at that moment you thought, ‘Max is pretty much in control here.'," Windsor concluded.

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy