Well Verstappen was off it the entire weekend. I would say this was his worst weekend in the last 4 years. He was atleast hustling the car last year in Singapore, here he looked dead/uninterested.
It says more about the track than it says about Verstappen honestly. You're crazy if you think that Verstappen wouldn't be able to overtake someone with 51 laps of tyre delta if it'd be at all humanly possible.
No I know that there was no way Verstappen was getting through. But Verstappen never seemed like he was hustling George all over the place. Hell sainz on piastri looked more likely than Verstappen on Russell at the end which considering the tyre advantage that max had is crazy.
Yeah that's fair to say. I think the prospect of P5 instead of P6 didn't really get him going. Also considering that there's actually a world where Ferrari or McLaren can be dangerous to the championship, he probably took the safe points instead of trying a risky overtake.