The start of the race was quite smooth and there was no reshuffle in the leading positions. Leclerc, Verstappen and Sainz held their positions without problems. Sergio Perez, who lost fourth place to Lewis Hamilton, was not the best, and was soon overtaken by the great moving Kevin Magnussen. The Dane was even close to successfully attacking Hamilton in turn four, but the Brit was able to hold on to the Haas driver.
The drivers of Alfa Romeo had a terrible start – Valtteri Bottas lost eight positions and was 14th after the first lap, and Zhou fell at the very end of the field. The players of the Hinwil team were quickly able to make up for the losses – Bottas dealt with Mick Schumacher, while Zhou in a short period managed to overtake Ricciardo, Stroll, Norris, Hulkenberg, Latifi and Schumacher. The German on the first lap made a full turn around his axis after contact with Ocon, but both of them continued their struggle. The French, however, soon received a five-second penalty.
We didn’t see much action over the next few laps. Kevin Magnussen lost position to Perez and later George Russell after the Dane drove too far in the first corner. These were the only changes to the top 10 layout until Lewis Hamilton came down the pit lane on Lap 12. The seven-time world champion was fitted with hard tires and finished 11th, but made a mistake in the first corner which Guanyu Zhou took advantage of to overtake the Mercedes driver. Hamilton soon found a bit more grip and in the next lap he regained the position lost a little earlier to the rookie.
Verstappen vs Leclerc: First Match
On Lap 14, Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz went into the pit lane for a fresh set of soft tires. The Dutchman immediately began to spin the best times of individual sectors, to which Ferrari reacted after two wheels, attracting the leader of the race – Leclerc, to the service position. The Monaco returned to the track ahead of Verstappen, but his advantage over the Red Bull driver was minimal. The first duel of the two did not have to wait long – on the next lap Verstappen overtook Leclerc on the starting straight, but the Scuderia rider managed to successfully respond to his rival on the approach to turn number four.
The lap was followed by a replay of the entertainment – Leclerc was again the winner in the duel with the world champion. On lap 19, Verstappen tried his luck in the first corner again, but this time the attack attempt was too optimistic and ended up locking the right front wheel. After this incident, Leclerc began to move away from the Red Bull driver and on lap 25 it was over 3.5 seconds. A similar distance separated the Dutchman from the third Sainz, who in turn had just over two seconds of advantage over Sergio Perez. The Mercedes drivers did not seem to count in the fight for the top positions – the fifth Hamilton was behind the Mexican by over 15 seconds.
Ferrari runs away, nerves at Red Bull
On the 28th lap, Lewis Hamilton appeared in the pit for the second time, with intermediate tires. Three and four laps later, Red Bull and Ferrari did the same for Verstappen and Leclerc. The Dutchman, however, found himself behind the Ferrari driver again, but this time the difference between them was greater and amounted to two seconds. After the stops by Sainz and Perez, the situation in the lead returned to normal and Leclerc was again in the lead ahead of Verstappen, Sainz and Perez, followed by Hamilton, Russell, Magnussen, Gasly, Alonso and Ocon.
Charles Leclerc was informed that his tires degrade less than those of Max Verstappen. The thesis of the Ferrari engineer was reflected in the table, as the Monakian moved away from the second Dutchman for more than five seconds. Carlos Sainz also had a comfortable advantage over Perez. Red Bull took the risk and brought Max Verstappen to a third stop and equipped their leader with soft tires to try and score an extra point for the fastest lap. The reigning world champion reported problems with the car to the team, but was able to keep up the pace.
Fire at AlphaTauri, the nightmare of Verstappen and Perez
You had to wait until lap 44 for the first unlucky man to retire in 2022. Then there was a spectacular failure of a unit in Pierre Gasly’s car. The French stopped the car at the side of the road at the exit of the third corner, and the first safety car departure this year was needed. Ferrari took this moment to bring both of its drivers to the third stop. The vast majority of the stake followed suit, with the exception of Mick Schumacher. Thanks to this, the German was in tenth position.
The restart was seven laps before the end and we had an exciting sprint all the way to the finish line. Leclerc quickly drifted away from Verstappen who had to focus more on defending his position against Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard came close to overtaking Verstappen in the first corner, but in the end the Dutch managed to defend himself. But defending the position against Sainz was – as it turned out – the least of Red Bull’s problems at the time. Verstappen was increasingly suffering from engine problems, as evidenced by his losing position to Sainz in the second sector, eventually slowing down drastically to the pit lane at the end of lap 54.
Perez moved up to third place, but the Mexican also found himself in trouble as he had Lewis Hamilton pressing right behind his back and due to the fact that he himself was reporting power loss issues! The 31-year-old managed to defend himself from Hamilton just one lap before finally turning the car on the last lap due to a propeller shaft failure.
Lewis Hamilton thus unexpectedly – however it sounds – was in the top three. However, everyone’s attention was focused on Ferrari, which took the first double since the 2019 Singapore Grand Prix! Leclerc took his third victory in his career, Carlos Sainz finished second, and Lewis Hamilton completed the podium.
The other drivers, like Hamilton, have undoubtedly benefited from Red Bull’s drama. George Russell passed the finish line fourth, followed by one of the biggest sensations of the weekend – the returning Kevin Magnussen. Bottas, Ocon, Tsunoda, Alonso took the next positions, and the last point went to the debuting Guanyu Zhou.
Source: Sport
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
