By the time Verstappen finally got past Alonso, it was already lap 33.
At that point, the gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton was still only 4.1 seconds.
Old Man also knew that even though he could finish the remaining half of the race on this set of mediums, if he wanted to look after the tyres it was basically impossible to fend off Verstappen's attacks; ever since that safety car restart, today's fight for the race win had nothing to do with him anymore.
He was never going to pit for fresh tyres in the middle or late stages of the race.
So Hamilton was fairly calm now, just running his own race pace as normal on track.
If Verstappen caught up from behind, then for Qin Miao's sake, as long as he could hold Verstappen off for a bit he would defend normally; if he really couldn't, Hamilton wouldn't force it.
The second half of the race was relatively quiet.
After Verstappen passed Alonso, he caught up to Hamilton and entered the DRS zone behind him on lap 37.
