Higher tyre degradation than expected compared to when Red Bull struggled badly for car balance in practice on Friday appeared to ease Verstappen’s path, as he was also boosted by the set-up work completed at his team’s factory ahead of qualifying.
Norris did mount a ferocious late-race charge as he worked his hard tyres better than Verstappen in the second of two stints, but the world champion held on to win by 0.7s.
