George Russell becomes the fourth different Grand Prix winner in 2025, while the two McLarens collide in an incident that causes a Norris retirement.
George Russell managed to get a good launch off the start, avoiding any sort of potential side by side action through turn 1. Piastri didn’t have the best start, and would lose a position to Antonelli, falling to fourth place.
Alex Albon would attempt to overtake Colapinto around the outside of turn 8, but would be made to bounce across the grass, losing a position to Hadjar and Hulkenberg in the process, with the latter slipping through to 9th.
Verstappen had started by keeping Russell honest in the opening few laps, but quickly a gap of over a second hand opened up, just as it had throughout the field as the race was very much in a tyre preservation phase.
Lando Norris began his comeback drive from 7th place by overtaking Fernando Alonso on lap 11 after the latter went wide at the turn 10 hairpin.
Verstappen would be the first to pit at the end of lap 12, having been unhappy with his medium tyres and nearly getting overtaken by Antonelli. This triggered some more pit stops to take place, with Russell coming in at the end of lap 13 and Antonelli one lap after that.
Hamilton would pit at the end of lap 15, but would be a bit compromised, as Norris was trying to overtake him around the outside, leaving the pit entry somewhat blocked off, and costing Hamilton a bit of time as he needed to slow down a bit to allow Norris by and get into the pits.
He would find himself stuck in a bit of traffic, with those ahead having worn tyres, but with a small DRS train forming, though he would be able to get past Albon shortly after Ocon had.
Albon had begun to lose positions incredibly frequently. He has some issues with his power unit early on, and then got left on his medium tyres far longer than anyone else, getting put into something of a strategic no man’s land.
Lewis Hamilton was being told that he had gained some damage, losing about 20 points of downforce on his car.
Leclerc would pit onto another set of hard tyres at the end of lap 28, a choice he didn’t quite understand, while Norris responded by pitting one lap later, but opting to go onto the mediums instead.
The tyre wear issues on Verstappen’s Red Bull appeared to rear its head once again, as he drastically began to fall away to Russell in the lead, but he would pit once again at the end of lap 37 onto new hard tyres before Antonelli could overtake once again.
Antonelli would respond just one lap later, being in the more immediate fight with Verstappen. Antonelli would come out right by Verstappen, though the Red Bull driver would keep himself ahead, but only just.
Russell would come in at the end of lap 42, but would have a bit of a scruffy pit stop, having a small issue with his rear left tyre before he left his pit box.
There was an incident between Gasly and Stroll, with the latter squeezing Gasly off track and forcing him to cut the final chicane, an action that would net Stroll a 10 second time penalty.
Piastri took his second pit stop at the end of lap 45, going onto another set of hards and coming back out a couple of seconds behind Antonelli.
Norris would pit a couple of laps later, just under 4 seconds behind his teammate in effective fourth place.
Albon’s race would come an early end on lap 49, pulling into an escape road at the turn 10 hairpin.
Piastri had began to really push Antonelli, but had initially struggled to get the overtake done. He was slowly losing time to Norris behind, with this potentially becoming something of a critical period in the world championship.
Further ahead, Verstappen was beginning to close the gap to Russell in the lead, with the end of this race shaping up to be rather intriguing.
Lapped traffic was significantly helping Norris catch up to Piastri, and it wasn’t long before Norris was within DRS range of his teammate.
The gap between Verstappen and Russell had began to open back up, but the fight for fourth between Piastri and Norris was still very much alive. However, this would soon become a fight for third, as Piastri was able to catch back up to Antonelli.
Norris would attempt to make an overtake into the turn 10 hairpin on lap 66, but Piastri would get a better exit down the back straight. The two would be side by side into the final chicane, with Norris able to get a better exit. He would try to find a gap that didn’t exist on the inside of Piastri, which would cause contact that would take Norris out of the race.
This brought the safety car out, effectively bringing the race to an early end.
This makes Russell the fourth different Grand Prix winner in 2025, while Piastri was able to stretch his championship lead by 12 points.
The next race is the Austrian Grand Prix, which will take place on June 29.
