George Russell claimed his first 'P1' race honours in Formula 1 by taking his first Sprint race victory, ahead of Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton. After trailing Verstappen in the opening half of the race, Russell took the lead with a calculated overtake on the approach to Turn 4. Verstappen's race fell away from there, with the Dutchman falling behind Ferrari's Carlos Sainz - sustaining front wing damage in the process - and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, who took second and third respectively. Hamilton, however, is one of three drivers under investigation for a 'start procedure' breach, which is believed to be related to how the car was lined up on the grid. He Daniel Ricciardo and Guanyu Zhou will be investigated after the race. Verstappen was the only frontrunner to use the Medium tyres, and ended the race in P4, ahead of teammate Sergio Perez, who recovered from P9. The second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc struggled to progress from his P10 grid slot in the opening laps, but eventually fought back to re-join the established 'top three' teams and take P6.
Lando Norris took P7 for McLaren, ahead of Haas' Kevin Magnussen, who secured a point for eighth place following his heroic Pole Position on Friday. After a close call with against teammate Lance Stroll, Sebastian Vettel finished in P9, just outside the points, ahead of AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly. A disastrous day for Alpine saw both Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso come to blows, with tangles at Turn 4 and the start-finish straight damaging Alonso's wing and triggering a pit stop. Alonso finished down in P15, with Ocon taking P18 after completing his race with damage.
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