Antonelli had not realised anything was wrong in the moment. On lap 4, Verstappen slowed and waved him past, and his first thought was that his rival was simply conceding a place he had never earned.

“A bit confused because I didn’t think he overtook me off track,” the Mercedes driver said afterwards.

“He overtook me normally, so I was a bit confused in the first place.”

Verstappen had run wide on the opening lap and rejoined ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Race control let the pass stand, but Red Bull decided the position eventually had to be handed back. Verstappen was told to give it up to Hamilton, and to Antonelli too, because the Mercedes driver had also been affected.

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“But then he told me that he had to give the position back to Lewis,” Antonelli said.

“So, you know, it was a bit awkward, especially for him because Lewis was also experiencing brake issues.”

Hamilton retired the Ferrari after seven laps with a brake failure, as reported by Formula1.com. The place Verstappen had reluctantly given up vanished within the same stint.

‘Lando deserved to win today’

The bigger discomfort was the shape of the result. Norris had started from pole and led until Lance Stroll’s retirement at Turn 20 triggered a Virtual Safety Car, which rearranged the strategic order.

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Mercedes and Red Bull pitted their cars under the caution. McLaren could not, because the VSC came just after Norris had passed the pit entry, and a slow tyre change on the following racing lap dropped him to third.

“Today we didn’t deserve to win,” Antonelli said.

“Lando deserved to win today.”

He was equally blunt on his own start.

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“I just didn’t do a good enough job at the start, being a bit too aggressive.”

He had cut the first chicane trying to pass Norris, and after a near-identical error on his second attempt he yielded to Verstappen, setting up the whole sequence that ended with the awkward mid-race swap.

Leclerc’s late stop hands over the lead

Charles Leclerc took Ferrari’s remaining car onto an extended first stint after the VSC and briefly led the race. The Monégasque did not pit until lap 48, at which point Antonelli inherited a lead he then controlled to the flag.

Verstappen recovered to finish second, 4.351 seconds behind. Norris was a further seven-tenths back in third, on a weekend he had otherwise dominated.

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“It’s good to win, but it doesn’t feel as good because I think Lando today deserved the win,” Antonelli said in the post-race press conference, in quotes reported by Pit Debrief.

“That’s why I think today the win is great, but not the way I wanted to win.”

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