McLaren had hoped to push Ferrari into extending its lead at the front of the 78-lap race, in a bid to build a sufficient buffer between the cars in the top four and Russell to allow McLaren to make a pitstop.
Having started on hard tyres, Russell switched to the medium compound during the early red flag, which forced him into managing his tyres to make it to the end. As the top four were all equipped with the harder tyres, the chasm between the two groups began to grow quickly.
