Max Verstappen hunted down Lewis Hamilton during the final ten laps, but it was Hamilton who came out on top to win the first race of the 2021 Formula 1 season. The British driver had older tyres in the final chapter of the race.
Tough race
"What a difficult race that was. Stopping early was going to be difficult but we had to cover, Max. They've had an amazing performance all weekend so it was going to take something pretty special," Hamilton said in the post-race interview.
"We had to find the right balance from not pushing too much and looking after the tyres. Max was all over me at the end but we just about managed to hold him off. Massively grateful to the men and women at the factory to keep pushing the boundaries."
Red Bull Racing had a strong pre-season testing and Verstappen topped the timesheets in all four sessions ahead of the race. Hamilton was pleased to get ahead of his rival early.
"We love the challenge. This is a really good start for us, with testing we thought we'd be 6-7 tenths behind," he added.