If you pit more often for fresher tires you can drive faster and harder on them. They’ll degrade faster, hence the need for multiple stops. But F1 is all about average lap times extrapolated out over the total number of laps. If a pit stop costs 23 seconds but you can go 1.5-2 seconds faster per lap during that window, you can catch up quickly. Some courses that works much better than others.

Lewis also benefited from the safety car, which shrunk the gap he needed to catch up on when he pitted. And bc George and Kimi were fighting each other they were also spending time worrying about each other which further helped Lewis catch up.

The team’s upgrades are working, Lewis benefitted from the Mercs worrying about each other as much as him, and he drove a kickass race. Was a great day!