Verstappen led from pole, ahead of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. They all started on soft tyres, whereas Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and George Russell opted for mediums from the start – which allowed them to target a one-stop strategy after switching to hards.
That strategy was ruined by an odd-looking scenario with AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda stopping on track twice, which gave Verstappen the advantage after a virtual safety car, but the pendulum swung back when Valtteri Bottas’s Alfa Romeo stopped too, bringing out a full safety car.
