17 fastest laps and finishing 19 seconds ahead of Ocon begs to differ. Max would've won even if he had pitted under the safety car and he would've beaten Norris even without a safety car. Nobody had the pace Max had. The red flag made his race easier but it didn't "make all the difference".
You can't ignore that Max was given a free pitstop. Would Max have won even if he hadn't? Maybe. But after he was given the free pitstop, it was a sure thing that he was going to be in the top 3 ahead of George and Lando.
I agree that the red flag made it easy for him to win, but not because of the free pitstop, it's because Merc and McLaren made the wrong strategy call.
Everybody knows that if the race conditions require wets there's a high chance the race is called off. Both Merc and McLaren pitted before the worst rain which means they weren't waiting to see if the race is called off. Had the race been called off I don't think people would be looking at Max. I think people would be questioning why Merc and McLaren decided to pit early. The red flag was beneficial to Max because Merc and McLaren made the wrong call by pitting early.
Sheesh. You get open track position in such conditions you can rattle off fast laps. Nobody said he wasn't a great driver. It just fell his way. Thin skin much?
Did you watch the same race as the rest of us? He didn't just cruise into first position, he passed half the grid before the red flag.
And pretty ironic calling others thin skinned when you're the one who can't accept that Max was phenomenal this race. Every comment trying to downplay his racing.
While I'm a Verstappen fan I really want this to stop. It's not exciting and as an additional thing it might lead teamsvto leave their drivers out in dangerous conditions hoping to gain track position in case of a red flag.
It just worked out for him. Something like this usually happens during monsoon races. If it makes you feel better, he was able to stay out on ragged tires due to excellent car control. Of course, so did Ocon.