Max Verstappen adds another comfortable Sprint victory to his accolades as Daniel Ricciardo musters up a strong defence of fourth place against Carlos Sainz.
Lando Norris was a victim of a turn 1 incident that left him having to retire the car immediately. Lewis Hamilton had went into the corner too quickly, which left Fernando Alonso, who himself had went deep, with nowhere to go, hitting into Lance Stroll, who in turn hit Norris. The resulting contact also left Alonso with a puncture, and Stroll had to retire.
During the turn 1 commotion, Daniel Ricciardo was able to make advantage of a good start to get ahead of Sergio Perez, who had went deep into the first turn.
The Norris incident had brought out the safety car, but once green flag running resumed, Verstappen was able to quickly break the DRS range from Charles Leclerc, helping him to cruise to victory.
Sergio Perez would regain 3rd place from Daniel Ricciardo on lap 5, with the Australian looking to be under threat from the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz behind, though he was able to hold the position with the help of Perez’s DRS for the time being.
A battle was brewing between Hamilton and Magnussen as Hamilton looked to overtake the Haas to get into the point paying positions. Magnussen, in his defending, had cut the chicane on lap 7, maintaining the position. This was an act that earned him a 10 second penalty, killing all chances the Dane had of scoring a point today. A couple of laps later, Magnussen had made minor contact with Hamilton when the 7 time world champion attempted an overtake.
Ricciardo had lost his DRS to Perez on lap 8, who had potentially been keeping Ricciardo within 1 second to maintain a buffer to Sainz, or was just maintaining tyre wear. Even without the straight line boost of DRS, Ricciardo appeared to have a good straight line advantage over the Ferrari, and was able to maintain a stern defence.
Lap 14 saw Magnussen force Hamilton wide at turn 11, which allowed Yuki Tsunoda to steal 9th from the Mercedes driver. Magnussen would gain another 10 second penalty as a result, but Hamilton would finally be able to get past the Haas, but still outside the points. The straight line struggles of that Mercedes made things difficult, but Hamilton was finally able to get the move done on the final lap of the race.
Further ahead and the battle between Ricciardo and Sainz remained fierce. Even up to the final lap, Ricciardo had just enough in a straight line to keep Sainz at bay, and even an attempted overtake by the Ferrari driver on the final lap was defended well, and Ricciardo was able to score his best result since the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, where he also finished 4th.
Right as the race ended, Kevin Magnussen was given one more 5 second penalty after being found to have infringed track limits one too many times. Lewis Hamilton had also picked up a drive through penalty post-race, adding 20 seconds to his race time, promoting Yuki Tsunoda back up to 8th place. This was because Hamilton had sped through the pitlane by 10.7 kp/h over the speed limit.
