If there were no safety car issues I think there was potential depending on how that Merc pace kept up, not sure how fast Verstappen could've gone on his last stint and they wouldn't be as fresh tires trying to pass then. But yeah, the VSC/SC situation just got messy, and there was no defending from Max anymore. In retrospect getting them both on softs for a 2/3 would have been ideal, but who knows how messy double stacking while all the cars went through the pit lane could have been, might have led to a penalty like Sainz.

The Tsunoda stuff is the real mystery lol