(Motorsports news) Oscar Piastri was the best of the rest for McLaren, finishing slightly ahead of teammate Lando Norris. Russell battled back to finish fourth. Polesitter Verstappen led Russell and Hamilton on the long run to the first corner, with the latter beginning on soft tires. The Mercedes pair clashed as Hamilton pushed around the outside of those ahead of him, sending Hamilton tumbling into the gravel without his right-rear wheel.
Due to safety worries over tyre issues, F1 teams were thrown a curveball with a required maximum of 18-lap stints, thus forcing all drivers into a three-stop strategy. The Mercedes combination of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton crashed at the first corner, leaving three-time champion Verstappen to drive well clear out front.
Russell hobbled back to the pits in need of a replacement front wing. Piastri moved up to second place, ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso (who was delayed avoiding the spinning Russell), Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, and Norris. The race restarted on lap five, with Verstappen extending his lead over Piastri to 1 second.
Sergio Perez’s Red Bull started from the pit lane on hard tyres and was already promoted to 13th owing to the collision and four cars pitting ahead of him. Despite Perez’s best efforts, Russell (on mediums) demoted him. On lap 13, Alonso was the first of the leaders to pit, followed by Piastri and Leclerc a lap later. Leclerc rejoined ahead of Alonso, but quickly regained his net third position.
Piastri came in early for the final set of pit stops on lap 43, having slipped 10 seconds behind Verstappen. After a solid penultimate stint, Norris pitted a lap later and resumed directly behind his teammate. Russell ran a six-lap race to the finish on fresh softs. Verstappen had a long last stop, resuming 5 seconds ahead of Piastri, who cut the distance to 3.4 seconds at one point but was unable to threaten Verstappen in the closing stages, and Verstappen won by 4.8 seconds.
Russell finished fourth, trailing Leclerc and Alonso. Ocon finished eighth, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas. Perez was penalized three times for violating track restrictions, which slowed his recovery drive to tenth place, and his final penalty promoted Zhou Guanyu to ninth. Carlos Sainz of Ferrari did not start the race owing to a fuel system problem, and Logan Sargeant of Williams was forced to retire due to illness.
