Windsor saw hopeless Hamilton: "The damage had been done"

"It was exactly how we thought it was going to go," Windsor starts his analysis. "The Red Bull was incredibly good with that set-up on the medium tyre from the line into that first stint. That's what won it for Verstappen."

First stint crucial for Verstappen

He continued: "But also it was Max doing what we thought he was going to do which is go down the outside in the first corner. Whilst Bottas was worried about not taking Lewis out, Max took advantage of that on the racing line and passed them both. Taking advantage also of how wide the track is. Beautiful pass into the first corner."

How Verstappen then drove away on the medium tyres was crucial to the outcome of the race, according to Windsor. "Max's hard tyres were three laps newer [than Hamilton's tyres] but the damage had been done in terms of time and margin. There's no way in the world Hamilton was going to make up for that even if Mercedes had had a big advantage on the hard tyre," the analyst concluded.