Hamilton crushed everyone with lap times: "I hardly see that anymore"

Just before it started raining, Hamilton was right behind the McLaren of Norris. Would Hamilton have won if it hadn't rained? "I personally don't think so, because that McLaren is just so strong on those long straights. That car is so good and it has so little drag. That's so incredible how fast that car runs. Even when Lewis drives behind it with his DRS fully open, you just saw that he almost didn't get there", Christijan Albers says in the Telegraph podcast.

"In addition, Norris also had a fresh set of tyres, where you can actually make the difference. Then you still have the possibility to drive close behind and overtake. If you don't have that and you're stuck behind someone for too long, then you just lose so much downforce and those tyres actually heat up a lot more and get too hot, so you don't have that opportunity to get past them anymore."

Hamilton on another level

Max Verstappen was also able to take advantage of the rain, eventually finishing second. "For Max it also just worked out perfectly, because you could see he was going to lose more and more positions because those tyres were getting old, those mediums just couldn't cope at the end. That did help him to the second position."

"The one team that was just strong, when they come in front of it and you get a DRS train, that was the two McLaren's. It's treacherous, because all at once when you see Lewis Hamilton driving alone in the middle of the race, what kind of lap times he's popping out and that he's just crushing everybody. I hardly see that anymore. It's incredible how he closes that gap to Norris. Then you look at how sensitive the car is in traffic with turbulence winds. Then that Mercedes doesn't work at all", says Albers.