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From the moment the lights turned green, Verstappen was fully aware from P2. He immediately took the lead by overtaking Sainz, but seconds later the red flag was waved after a hard crash in the backfield.
Giant crash Zhou
Guanyu Zhou was the biggest victim of this. The Alfa Romeo driver flipped over the tire pile after contact with George Russell and had to be freed from his car by a special ‘extraction team’. It took a long time before it became known how the Chinese was doing and the relief was great when it turned out that he was ‘okay’.
Guanyu Zhou crashed really hard.
ANP/HH
It wasn’t the only crash. Alexander Albon got Sebastian Vettel in the back of his car and then also crashed hard. He came into close contact with Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda. After just under an hour, the race could resume, obviously without Zhou, Albon and Russell. Because a full lap had not yet been completed, the old starting order was reverted to. Sainz again from P1 with Verstappen next to him.
Restart
The Dutchman was again alert and immediately sat next to Sainz, but the Spaniard was not surprised a second time. Charles Leclerc then immediately tried to attack Verstappen, but the Dutchman barely kept the Monegask behind.
Sainz felt the pressure from Verstappen, made a mistake and the Dutchman made good use of that. In lap ten, Verstappen took the lead, but a few laps later he suffered a major blow. Initially it was thought of a flat tire, but the Dutchman also experienced problems after the pit stop. He was able to continue his race in P6, but clearly struggled to balance the car due to a bodywork problem.
Leclerc then complained over the radio that he was faster than his leading teammate. Ferrari then decided to bring Sainz in first. With Hamilton behind him, Leclerc was allowed to show that he could pick up the pace. After his pit stop, however, he was ‘just’ behind Sainz again. Lewis Hamilton stayed out for a long time and thus took the lead.
Lewis Hamilton drove a great race.
ANP/HH
Second stop Verstappen
On lap 25, Verstappen decided to go in again. However, he did not agree with his team to put him on hard tires. “I drive on ice,” said a frustrated Verstappen. Leclerc passed Sainz again not much later. On lap 34, leader Hamilton went in for the first time. He switched to the hard tire and hoped to finish the race on it. He returned to the asphalt behind the Ferraris.
Wonderful final phase
An outage by Ocon resulted in a safety car ten laps before the end and so both Sainz and Hamilton ducked in for fresh rubber. Leclerc decided to stay outside and had to keep the rest behind on old rubber. It did not work. Sainz passed his teammate and rode unthreatened to victory. Behind that, a great fight ensued between Perez, Leclerc and Hamilton. In the end it was Perez who came in second, just before Hamilton and Leclerc who fought another great fight.
Verstappen eventually finished seventh. He remains the leader in the battle for the championship.