Starting from second place due to a penalty in qualifying, Max Verstappen took the lead at the first corner, passing George Russell and Lando Norris. The race was interrupted on three occasions by the entrance of the Safety Car, necessary to manage incidents involving several drivers, including Williams' Franco Colapinto, Alpine Renault's Esteban Ocon and Haas' Nico Hulkenberg.
Despite the interruptions, Verstappen still held onto pole position until the finish line and took his ninth win of the season. Among the drivers who finished the race in the points, or up to 10th place, we recall that Mercedes' George Russell finished fourth, followed by Pierre Gasly, fifth with Alpine Renault, and Carlos Sainz, sixth for Ferrari. Fernando Alonso finished seventh with Aston Martin, ahead of Zhou Guanyu, eighth with Kick Sauber. Kevin Magnussen, with Haas, finished ninth.
Lando Norris, penalised with a ten-second stop-and-go for not respecting the yellow flags, instead climbed up to tenth place, earning his McLaren team precious points for the constructors' world championship.
Several retirements due to accidents or technical failures characterized the race, which also led to the retirement of Sergio Pérez of Red Bull and Lance Stroll of Aston Martin. It was a day to forget for Lewis Hamilton: penalized by a false start and for speeding in the pit lane, he finished only 12th out of the 15 drivers left on the track.
Let's get to the rankings: the drivers' world championship standings confirm poleman Max Verstappen with 429 points, followed by McLaren's Norris with 349 and Leclerc with 341.
The constructors' standings instead see McLaren in first place, with 640 points, followed by Ferrari with 619 points.
This gives the Reds from Maranello the chance to make a difficult, but not impossible, comeback to clinch the 2024 constructors' world championship in the final race of the calendar, scheduled for next week at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
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