Norris opted for a Hail Mary one-stop strategy when race engineer Will Joseph floated the idea mid-race. As the final laps unfolded, he had older tires and was racing in dirty air as they caught up to traffic with no DRS assistance. Piastri was quickly narrowing the gap, getting it within eight-tenths of a second with five laps to go.

It created a tense, fascinating race. More than that, the radio transmissions - particularly those between Piastri and engineer Tom Stallard, as Piastri said he "didn't care" about Leclerc, all he wanted was to try to beat Norris - revealed for the first time just how much this fight means to both drivers.