Hamilton had to let Verstappen go: 'It made zero difference'

The number two in the world championship states that for him there was nothing else to do but to let Verstappen go first."Firstly there’s marbles on the inside, so I didn’t want to make my tyres any worse than they already were," Hamilton explained at Motorsportweek.com. "He had the DRS open, if he didn’t pass me there he would have passed me on the straight afterwards so it made zero difference."

Red Bull Racing benefited greatly from the tyres during the latter part of the race. The Austrian went for a second stop, while Hamilton stayed out."I’m sure if we look in hindsight, for sure if we had stopped earlier – before they stopped – and come out ahead, just gone onto a two-stop, we probably could have won the race."

Increase in Verstappen's lead over Hamilton

For Hamilton, Verstappen's victory means he is falling further behind his teammate. The English driver was still four points behind Verstappen before the race, but that gap has now increased to 12 points.