That gave Verstappen P8, despite the Dutchman having locked up heavily in the final Safety Car restart. Hamilton, who had previously gone straight into the barriers on Lap 33, locked up in an attempt to pass Vettel in the final two minutes of the race and dropped to ninth. Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel capitalised on errors from Hamilton and Verstappen to finish sixth and eighth, respectively, in a massive result for Aston Martin. Sainz completed the podium for Ferrari, having passed Hamilton at the start, while Norris and Ricciardo benefitted from their late Safety Car stops and finished respective P4 and P5. Perez would, however, find himself under investigation for passing the Safety Car just before the second restart – the summons coming after the race. What followed was a stunning chase for victory, Perez unerring in defence as he held off the Monegasque driver by over seven seconds at the chequered flag. With the two-hour mark approaching, this race would be finished by the timer, and Perez had 26 minutes to hold off a fast-charging Leclerc when DRS was enabled on the 43rd lap. Meanwhile, Verstappen suffered a heavy lockup in an attempt to pass Leclerc and was briefly bumped to last place before George Russell and Mick Schumacher picked up punctures after making brief contact into Turn 1. The race restarted on Lap 39 for Perez to continue leading. Crucially, the McLaren drivers hadn’t Lando Norris came in for a new set of mediums, and Daniel Ricciardo opted for slicks as they emerged fourth and sixth for the restart. Still, on the following tour, Yuki Tsunoda went straight on into the barriers at Turn 10 to bring out the second Safety Car, before which most of the drivers had stopped for slicks. Russell’s improving pace triggered drivers to begin swapping for slick tyres on Lap 35. Fernando Alonso’s stoppage brought out a Virtual Safety Car on Lap 20, with George Russell becoming the first driver to switch from intermediates to mediums. Verstappen lost five places to fall to P12 at the start, but he made three up by Lap 9 when the first Safety Car was deployed for Nicholas Latifi and Zhou Guanyu’s collision. Although the rain had ceased, the surface was still slippery for the start of the race, when pole-sitter Leclerc lost the lead to Perez into Turn 1, and Sainz quickly pried P3 off Hamilton, who went wide into Turn 1. Heavy rain forced a delay of over an hour, with the formation lap beginning at 2105 local time.
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