At the beginning, Leclerc seemed to do well against Verstappen. But Verstappen quickly moved to the left and took the lead in Turn 1. Meanwhile, Sergio Perez tried to challenge Leclerc, giving Daniel Ricciardo the opportunity to move into third place.
Lando Norris didn’t have a chance to continue the race as he got caught in an incident on the outside of Turn 1. This happened because Hamilton braked very late on the inside, hitting Fernando Alonso, who was close to Lance Stroll. As a result, Stroll also retired from the race.
The safety car was brought out, and the race was paused until lap four. Verstappen had a great restart and managed to keep a good distance from Leclerc. When the DRS (Drag Reduction System) was finally activated, Perez quickly overtook Ricciardo on the straight.
As the race progressed, Verstappen led Leclerc by about 2.2 seconds. However, Leclerc started closing the gap halfway through the race. Verstappen reported that his car’s balance and degradation were not good. But despite this, he managed to increase his lead and eventually won the race.
Perez finished third, just behind Leclerc. Ricciardo held off Sainz to secure fourth place. Hulkenberg came in seventh, followed by Hamilton, who had a challenging race. Hamilton struggled to overtake Magnussen, who was driving for Haas. They had a couple of incidents during the race, which resulted in Magnussen receiving multiple penalties.
Hamilton also received a 20-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane, dropping him to 16th place in the final standings. Norris, who couldn’t continue the race after the early incident, is under investigation for walking across the track back to the pits.
