He didn’t have to have fastest lap. He was winning the race. He was saving tires and running at a consistent pace.

The entirety of this was true last year as well. Hell last year he also had a black and white flag shown for track limit violations which would have meant that any further track limit violation would result in a penalty and yet he went for a fastest lap and got it by beating a time set by Perez on new tyres with DRS. Verstappen no longer has the kind of car advantage (or even any discernible advantage based on the last 5 races) that he had last year. If you aren’t able to realise that, I can’t help you.