From pole position, Verstappen had an excellent start, which meant that he was actually the first to dive into the corners without any problems. This initially also applied to his teammate Sergio Pérez, but after a collision with George Russell, the Mexican spun and dropped to last place. The Briton was given a five-second penalty for the incident. Pérez would give up the fight moments later.
Leclerc, meanwhile, kept well in Verstappen’s footsteps and made a serious attempt to pass the Dutchman on lap ten. This narrowly parried the attack, but Leclerc’s pressure remained and he passed it on lap twelve. Not long after, he ducked into the pit lane. Because it was an early stop, Verstappen fell back to eighth position. However, he quickly moved up again because drivers ahead of him also dived into the pit lane. Lewis Hamilton offered some resistance, but in the end the Red Bull passed him fairly quickly. Moments later, when both Ferraris pitted, Verstappen regained the lead.
Wonderful action Magnussen
Meanwhile, there were some brilliant battles in the midfield, where several cars were close together. Kevin Magnussen in particular had a brilliant move and passed two opponents in one move.
Leclerc quickly made up for the race leader on his fresh set of hard tires and on lap 33 the Ferrari overtook Verstappen again. Moments later, Carlos Sainz also got Verstappen in his sights. As a result, he decided to choose eggs for his money and make a pit stop, much earlier than planned. These tires fared significantly better in terms of wear.
Dropping out Sainz
Still, Leclerc had the advantage. He was able to make his second pit stop much later, allowing him to hunt for Verstappen on fresh tires. The Monegask’s grip was much better and so he quickly passed Verstappen, who also visited Sainz a little later. Just as the Spaniard was about to attack, his engine gave out and that was the end of the story for him.
Leclerc and Verstappen both took advantage of the situation and entered the pitlane to switch to medium tyres. With the same tires, Verstappen had twelve laps to close a gap of more than four seconds and pass Leclerc. The Monegask regularly complained of problems with his accelerator pedal, but he held his ground.