Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton brilliantly passed Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and teammate Valtteri Bottas to make it two wins out of three in the 2021 Formula 1 season, Trend reports citing Xinhua.
Starting second on the grid behind Bottas, Hamilton dropped to third behind Verstappen on lap 6 after being caught out by the return to racing speed following an early safety car period.
Undeterred at having lost a position, Hamilton retook second place on the main straight on lap 11 after Verstappen was slow out of the final corner, and passed Bottas in a similar fashion on lap 20 to move into the lead and take control of the race.
"That was such a tough race, physically and mentally, keeping everything together. I didn't quite get as good a start as Valtteri and then lost out at the restart which was not good,” said Hamilton afterwards.
"I had to try and reposition myself best I could. I think Max made a mistake at some point and that was perfect. With Valtteri, I had to make the move early on before the tyres were destroyed and I just managed to get him at Turn 1. Right on my limit. Great race.”
"There's a lot to download from today, improvements we can make. It wasn't all perfect so we will look at those points."
Behind Hamilton, Verstappen took second place on a day when Red Bull did not appear as comfortable on the harder tyre compound as Mercedes, while Bottas rounded out the top three and also took the bonus point for fastest lap.