Race report
After the end of the formation lap, Alonso lined up with the left side of his car outside of the starting position on the grid. At the start, he managed to squeeze past Pérez to take the lead, with Russell following third place. However, he was soon handed a five-second penalty for not properly lining up his car on the starting grid. Behind them Stroll overtook Sainz for fourth place, with Ocon and Hamilton behind them. Piastri, who had started in eighth place, made contact with Gasly while exiting turn two and this forced him to make a pit stop for a new front wing. His teammate Norris ran over the debris left from the coming together and he was required to make a pitstop as well, one lap later. This left the McLaren pairing at the back of the field. [22] Leclerc and Zhou completed the top ten behind Gasly, with the Monegasque having gained four places from his starting position. [23]
Alonso was able to stay in the lead for three laps, before being passed by Pérez. The top ten then remained relatively stable for a couple of laps, with Leclerc passing Gasly to take eight place during lap seven. Meanwhile, Verstappen was also recovering from his starting position down the order, entering the top ten during lap eight at the expense of Zhou. He gained another place one lap later, passing Gasly, while Leclerc also continued to move forward, through passing Hamilton. Three laps later Verstappen managed to overtake Hamilton as well and one lap later he and Leclerc both passed Ocon. [24]
In the meantime, during lap twelve, Zhou and Hülkenberg were the first drivers to make a regular pitstop for a fresh set of tyres. One lap later, Lance Stroll became the first of the front runners to follow suit, all three of them switching from the medium to the hardest compound in a bid to complete the race with one tyre change. This dropped Stroll to eleventh place. Gasly made his tyre change and the end of the next lap. Sainz, Leclerc and Ocon followed suit during the next two laps, with Sainz rejoining the track ahead of Stroll. This all promoted Verstappen to third place. Shortly afterwards, during lap seventeen, Stroll was suddenly asked to stop his car on track over his team's radio and duly did so in a service area on the outside of turn thirteen. Nevertheless, the safety car was deployed shortly afterwards. This prompted all drivers who had not yet made their regular tyre changes (including the then top five of Pérez, Alonso, Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton) to come into the pits to perform the change, while Alonso also served his five-second time penalty. [25]
The safety car left the track at the end of lap twenty to allow normal racing to resume. Pérez led from Alonso, ahead of Russell in third and Verstappen now fourth. Sainz completed the top five. Over the next two Laps, Hamilton passed Sainz for fifth place and Verstappen Russell for third respectively. At the end of the following lap Verstappen passed Alonso to move into second place. [26]
During lap twenty-eight, Albon was forced to retire his Williams because of a brake failure. The top ten was Pérez, Verstappen, Alonso, Russell, Hamilton, Sainz, Leclerc, Ocon, and Gasly, with Tsunoda joining them. This order remained stable for the next eighteen laps, when Magnussen passed Tsunoda to snatch the final points. [27]
During the final laps first Mercedes and then Aston Martin mentioned over the radio that Alonso could potentially incur an additional penalty of five seconds. Alonso reacted to this by extending his gap over Russell to over five seconds, despite no official message citing an investigation being shown. Despite both reporting issues with their cars, Pérez and Verstappen easily finished first and second, with Verstappen posting the fastest lap during the last lap and taking the extra point to retain the championship lead. Alonso finished third, making him the sixth driver to have scored 100 podiums in his Formula One career, ahead of Russell and Hamilton. Sainz, Leclerc, Ocon, Gasly and Magnussen completed the top ten. [28]
Max Verstappen 
