Race report
With rain falling in the circuit in the preceding hours and the track being wet, [2] all cars on the grid started on intermediate tyres. [48] Those starting on the right side of the grid, such as championship leader Charles Leclerc in second and his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. in fourth, [11] had a bad start due to a bitumen asphalt strip, which was added to cover the old starting line but had become more slippery when it rained. [49] [50] [51] Going into turn 1, Leclerc lost positions to Sergio Pérez and Lando Norris, [48] while Sainz was overtaken by Norris at the start and was hit by Daniel Ricciardo. [52] [53] The collision, which was not investigated, [48] left Sainz struck in the gravel, [54] while Ricciardo was able to get back on track and make a pit stop at the end of the lap. [48] After the Sainz–Ricciardo collision, Mick Schumacher had a half-spin and dropped from 10th to 17th, [48] as his rear-axle slid tagged the sidepod of Fernando Alonso, [55] who had to retire on lap 8 after his bodywork failed. [11] [47] Russell, Sebastian Vettel, and Lance Stroll had a good start, [48] with Russell sixth, Vettel ninth, and Stroll eleventh. [56] The safety car brought out by the Sainz–Ricciardo collision was withdrawn on lap 4. [11]
With Leclerc stuck behind Norris, the two Red Bull cars of Max Verstappen and Pérez built a lead, as Verstappen turned down a suggestion from his team to put on dry tyres and he continued racing, as did the rest of the field, despite reports of the track drying. [48] On lap 8, [56] Leclerc overtook Norris into turn 1, but by then he had a 6.2 and 3.3 seconds deficit to Verstappen and Pérez, respectively. [48] In the next seven laps, those gaps remained stable, as Verstappen was 5.5 seconds ahead of Pérez, with Leclerc at 1.9 seconds behind. [48] Verstappen told his team he was ready to switch to slick tyres in case a safety car was brought out but remained on track. Ricciardo went into the pits on lap 18 to switch to dry, medium compound tyres, which led the rest of the field to follow suit over the next few laps. [48] On lap 19, [56] both Pèrez and Russell, the latter now running fourth after overtaking Kevin Magnussen on lap 12, [56] pitted, which was a lap earlier than Verstappen and Leclerc, the latter of whom had a successful overcut to come in front of Pérez for second; however, due to Leclerc's colder tyres, Pérez was able to take the position back a few turns later, as Verstappen expanded his lead to 7.5 seconds. [48]
Leclerc remained close behind Pérez, who went over the grass at the chicane at turns 14–15 on lap 28, [56] and Leclerc closed the gap to less than one second but was not able to make the overtake. [48] When the DRS was activated on lap 35, [56] after being off until then because of wet-weather conditions, despite all drivers being on dry tyres, [48] [56] Leclerc was over one second behind Pèrez, while Pierre Gasly was able to get into DRS zone behind Alexander Albon, as Lewis Hamilton remained stuck behind the two drivers for the rest of the race, [47] [56] being lapped by Verstappen on lap 40. [48] [57] Verstappen extended his lead on Pèrez and Leclerc. [48] On lap 50, Leclerc went into the pits for soft compounds and came out in fourth position, behind Norris. [48] Leclerc overtook Norris with the help of DRS by lap 51, [56] as both Red Bull cars responded to Leclerc's undercut attempt and pitted on lap 51 (Pérez) and 52 (Verstappen), respectively. [48] With the move, Leclerc closed the gap to Pèrez and had a seven-tenth gap on lap 53. [48] In an attempt to push and get closer to Pérez for an overtake, Leclerc clattered the kerbs at the turns 14–15 chicane and spun to the outside wall on lap 54. [56] [58] He broke an endplate but avoided suspension damage, and was able to restart and get a new front wing and soft compounds at the pits. [48] He fell back to ninth and recovered to sixth by the end of the race. [56]
Verstappen won ahead of Pérez, Norris, Russell, whose front-wing aerodynamic balance was not adjusted at his pit stop, [48] and Valtteri Bottas, with Leclerc, Yuki Tsunoda, Vettel, Magnussen, and Stroll to complete the top 10. [48] Albon, Gasly, and Hamilton finished 11th, 12th, and 13th, respectively, after Esteban Ocon received a five-second penalty and was demoted to 14th for an unsafe release in the pits, which forced Hamilton to lift off in the pit lane and drop a place, [48] ahead of Zhou Guanyu, Nicholas Latifi, and Schumacher, who spun for a second time in the race, while Ricciardo, who was the only driver to make a second pit stop for a set of hard compounds and suffered a damaged diffusor from the collision with Sainz, finished last. [59] [48] Having led every lap whilst also having set the fastest lap and winning the race, Verstappen achieved his second career grand slam, [10] while Red Bull had their first 1–2 finish since the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix. [8] [60] In the Drivers' Championship, Sainz fell to fifth, [56] while both Verstappen and Red Bull made a comeback to second place in the Drivers' and Constructor championships, respectively. [61] [62] Leclerc saw his leading advantage in the standings reduced from 45 to 27 points. [10]
By virtue of Bottas' fifth place finish in this event, Alfa Romeo were able to secure sixth place in the Constructor's Championship, having finished level on points at the end of the season with Aston Martin but finishing ahead on countback. [63]
Max Verstappen 
