No one had any educated guesses about what was going to happen in the race and there were huge questions over reliability. And it was proven so...home track hero, Piastri had to radio to the team that he was okay after crashing out on his way to line up on the grid, smashing into the wall. He went into the wall and took the front wing and nose clean off.
A couple of cars were starting from the pit lane and then Hulkenberg had radio problems and his card was returned to the pits. It was a new starting procedure to enable the new electrics to work at their most efficient. I thought the lights almost went off for the race start before all five had come on. It seemed to catch some drivers out. LeClerc commented on this after the race. Hadjar nearly had Russell before he'd even put his foot to the throttle but LeClerc made it past easily. His team mate Antonelli went back several places because he had no battery. Lindblad got an amazing start and, after jostling with Hadjar, ended up fourth. Everyone had said that Ferrari had a strong start mechanism.
It was hard to tell which passes used the electrics because it was fast and furious as they were close from the starting grid. Russell and LeClerc got away from the pack, Hamilton hung back a little but still had a gap to the rest of the pack. Lap after lap the front runnering two overtook each other and got the place back whilst Hamilton watched on. When Russell locked up, he pounced. Meanwhile, Verstappen was coming up through the pack and was in 10th place on the 10th lap then his team mates' engine went up in smoke. It was a great time to pit under the Virtual Safety Car. Lots of cars came in.
I noticed that Hulkenberg did not make the start. Alonso had to stop his car. The first retirement was Bottas who pulled his Cadillac onto the side of the track and there was another Virtual Safety Car. Hamilton was firing instructions at his team for their tyre strategy.
There were fights further back too, including old rivals Gasly and Ocon.
Ferrari did not stop under either Virtual Safety Car and they had to pit during regular racing. Alonso came back out onto the track with car/body fixed. Whatever was happening with the nerve damage to the Aston Martin drivers' fingers, it seemed to have been resolved for the race.
On lap 38, another Virtual Safety Car was called to allow the marshals to pick up a bit of Perez' Cadillac; it was a little dicey. At this time, Verstappen was now on Norris's tail and he pitted to avoid the competition.
Having come back out, Alonso pitted and retired as did Stroll. Then Stroll was back out. Aston Martin were doing the Hokey-Cokey.
Really Ferrari lost the win because they did not put under Virtual Safety Car conditions; they will need to start listening to Lewis. Russell took a well-deserved first place and Antonelli capitalised on Ferrari's mistake for second. LeClerc was ahead of Hamilton behind them. Wolff looked very relieved. Norris was fifth and Verstappen sixth. Bearman took a good seventh, four places ahead of his team mate Ocon. Lindblad scored points for eighth place on his first F1 race and Bortoleto handled the Audi well for ninth. Gasly beat the slowly-diminishing Ocon for tenth. It wasn't a good sign that Williams were 12th and 15th.
There were seventeen finishers including Stroll who was several laps down. I wonder if much can be done before the next race weekend in seven days time and which features a Sprint qualifying and race too. The drivers have a better idea what they are facing but the teams have little time to make changes. Russell, Antonelli and LeClerc seem happy with what they have but how quickly can other teams and drivers catch them up?
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