Russell was in control of the race throughout. Norris followed him closely in the opening phases, often within a second of the Mercedes and looking quicker.
But after eight laps Norris radioed his team to say he had no rear grip and he began to lose time to the Mercedes and fall back into the clutches of Leclerc.
The Ferrari driver had chosen the soft tyres for the sprint, rather than the mediums of the other front-runners. But rather than losing his tyres as the race went on, Leclerc grew stronger in his pursuit of Norris and was able to pass into Tarzan, the first corner, on lap 18 of 24.
Russell said: “I was just managing my tyres a little bit at the early stage of the race because I knew if there were going to be any overtakes, it would be in the latter phase. We saw yesterday morning how fast Ferrari were, so it was just keeping a bit in the tank for the end.
“As soon as I saw Charles get ahead of Lando, sort of picked up the pace and the two of us pulled away. So, I think it was a well-managed race.”
Russell’s only concern was the weather. Rain was forecast to fall two laps from the end. As it happened, it did not come until after the chequered flag, as the drivers completed their slowing down laps, but it was heavy enough that it would have made the end of the race eventful had it come sooner.
Norris now had to concentrate on holding off Antonelli. The Italian was 0.3secs behind the McLaren crossing the line into the last lap, but although he feinted a move into Tarzan, he was not close enough to make it work.
Norris said: “I don’t think it was the tyres. We lacked pace and we have a bit of work to do.
“We’ve been losing out in the first three corners all weekend. The car’s very good in high speed [corners] but nowhere near good enough in the slow corners. You can’t over-push in the high-speed in the race (to avoid over-using the tyres) so we can’t optimise our strengths.”
Piastri lacked the pace of the lead group and fell back fell back progressively as the race developed, but he was just able to hold off Verstappen on the final lap, crossing the line 0.3secs ahead, with Hamilton close behind the Red Bull.
