Drivers crawled away from the grid to start the formation lap, 90 minutes earlier than originally planned due to expected bad weather. This formation lap was aborted when Lance Stroll crashed into the barriers at turn four. He locked his rear tyres under braking and skidded off the circuit. He got the car going but became beached while trying to cut through the gravel to rejoin the circuit.
The aborted start tested everyone’s knowledge of the rulebook. Once the yellow lights were turned on at the grid, Lando Norris immediately started an extra formation lap. Most other drivers followed, except for some cars at the back, including Franco Colapinto, Valtteri Bottas, and Max Verstappen. The cars at the back were right to do so, as the aborted start procedure is different from the extra formation lap procedure. Norris was not supposed to start the formation lap until the green lights were illuminated. He and various other drivers will be investigated after the race for start procedure violations.
When the cars returned to the grid, the start was aborted again and team members poured onto the circuit to get the cars ready for a third formation lap. After a ten-minute wait, the cars again started a formation lap. Everyone lined up on the grid in the correct position, despite the empty grid slots for Lance Stroll and Alex Albon, who was forced to withdraw after a heavy crash in the morning’s wet qualifying session.
When the race finally started, both cars on the front row had an equal reaction time to the lights going out, but George Russell was much faster in the second phase of the start. Russell took the lead before they even reached the first corner. The leading two quickly built up a gap to the rest of the field behind.
The rain began falling in the early laps, making for very slippery conditions. Max Verstappen, who often excels in wet conditions, was able to quickly make up places from his P17 starting position. By the end of the first lap, he was already in the top ten. But his progress slowed when he reached Charles Leclerc and couldn’t get by the lead Ferrari.
He was only able to get by on lap 25 when Leclerc pitted for a new set of intermediate tyres. Norris, who managed to cling to the back of the leading Mercedes, wanted to pit as well but was discouraged by his team. The McLaren pit wall believed the worn intermediate tyres would be good for a while and did not want to rejoin the race in traffic, as Leclerc had done.
The rain began increasing dramatically. Nico Hulkenberg showcased the lack of grip, spinning in the first corner and getting himself stuck on the old banking. The virtual safety car was deployed. He was able to rejoin the race, although he would eventually be disqualified because the track marshals had pushed the car free from the banking.
Many drivers pitted under the VSC, including Russell, Norris, and Yuki Tsunoda, who was running in P3. Although most drivers took new sets of intermediate tyres, Tsunoda and Sergio Perez took the gamble on the full wet tyres. Esteban Ocon and Max Verstappen decided not to pit, gambling on the race being stopped after bad weather. Ocon inherited the lead after the VSC was withdrawn.
The decision to stay out seemed to be the right one as the weather conditions deteriorated rapidly. Norris overtook Russell in an extremely slow overtake down the long second straight in nearly undrivable conditions. The safety car was deployed shortly after for weather conditions.
The cars cruised around behind the safety car for a couple of laps under the race was red-flagged. Franco Colapinto had crashed heavily under the safety car when applying the power in turn 13, making it a very expensive weekend for Williams.
As quickly as the rain had begun the rain had all but cleared up. Although the track was still soaking wet and light rain was still expected, conditions had improved enough to start the race. The drivers who had gambled on the wet tyres before the red flag changed back to the intermediates for the rolling restart.
It was a relatively clean restart, except for Oliver Bearman and Guanyu Zhou at the rear of the field. Bearman had spun and Zhou aquaplaned off the circuit both in turn 13 coming to the restart. Both were able to continue but Bearman had two other spins later in the race, showing how much he was struggling in these low-grip conditions.
Norris also had a wide moment on the restart at turn four. He rejoined alongside Russell, but lost the position in the following corner, dropping down to P5.
The safety car returned to action on lap 39 when Carlos Sainz crashed into the barriers in turn 8. He had locked the rear tyres under braking. Unfortunately for Alpine, this undid all of Esteban Ocon’s hard work to build a large gap to Verstappen.
He couldn’t reproduce his previous restart, getting overtaken by Verstappen on the inside of the first corner when the race restarted again on lap 43. Further back, Norris ran wide in the first corner, rejoining behind teammate Oscar Piastri. The two teammates swapped positions to put Norris into P6 since Piastri already had a 10-second penalty for colliding with Colapinto earlier in the race.
As the conditions improved, the lap times plummeted, although we never saw any slick running. Max Verstappen stretched his legs out front, earning the fastest lap. He crossed the line miles ahead to score his first grand prix victory since June, despite starting way down in P17. But the cheers from the Alpine garage could be heard around the world as Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly crossed the line to earn a 2-3 finish for the French team. This result will move Alpine significantly up the standings in the World Constructors’ Championship, potentially earning the team tens of millions of dollars in prize money at the end of the year.
But the race results may still be altered after the race, as the threat of a penalty for an aborted start procedure violation looms over some of the drivers.
This concludes a triple-header stint, giving the teams and drivers some much-needed rest as we reach just three race weekends until the end of the season. Next, the F1 show will return to the United States for the third time this year. This time it’s for the Las Vegas Grand Prix on November 23.
UPDATE: After the race, the stewards awarded Lando Norris and George Russell €5,000 fines for start procedure violations. Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson were not issued punishments because they were following the actions of the cars ahead. The race results remain unchanged.
| Pos. | Driver | Laps | Time | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 69 | 2:06:54.430 | 26 |  | |
| 2 | 69 | +19.477 | 18 | ||
| 3 | 69 | +22.532 | 15 | ||
| 4 | 69 | +23.265 | 12 | ||
| 5 | 69 | +30.177 | 10 | ||
| 6 | 69 | +31.372 | 8 | ||
| 7 | 69 | +42.056 | 6 | ||
| 8 | 69 | +44.943 | 4 | ||
| 9 | 69 | +50.452 | 2 | ||
| 10 | 69 | +50.753 | 1 | ||
| 11 | 69 | +51.531 | |||
| 12 | 69 | +57.085 | |||
| 13 | 69 | +63.588 | |||
| 14 | 69 | +78.049 | |||
| 15 | 69 | +79.649 | |||
| DNF | 38 | ||||
| DNF | 30 | ||||
| DSQ | 30 |
| 1 | M. Verstappen | 393 |  | |
| 2 | L. Norris | 331 | -62 | |
| 3 | C. Leclerc | 307 | -86 | |
| 4 | O. Piastri | 262 | -131 | |
| 5 | C. Sainz | 244 | -149 | |
| 1 | McLaren | 593 | | |
| 2 | Ferrari | 557 | -36 | |
| 3 | Red Bull | 544 | -49 | |
| 4 | Mercedes | 382 | -211 | |
| 5 | Aston Martin | 86 | -507 | |
