Everyone bar hard-shod Kevin Magnussen (P15) started the race on comfortable tyres, and Verstappen had a strong getaway, however teammate Perez fell again and misplaced second place to Leclerc – whereas Carlos Sainz couldn’t fairly pry P3 off the Red Bull. The reigning champion stretched his legs within the lead and finally received by over 10 seconds. Perez accomplished the one-two with each Red Bull drivers on related soft-soft-hard methods.
Aston Martin’s hopes of crashing the rostrum struggle appeared to have come crashing down on Lap 1 when Lance Stroll lunged on teammate Alonso into Turn 4 and hit the rear-right of his automotive, permitting each Mercedes forward.
Ferrari’s hopes of the rostrum did, nevertheless, come crashing down on Lap 41 when Leclerc retired with an engine problem. That was simply after Alonso made an excellent transfer to take P5 off Lewis Hamilton down the within of Turn 10. Alonso went on the warpath, and on Lap 45, he handed Sainz after a shocking battle by way of Sector 2 to seal his first podium since Qatar 2021.
Therefore, Sainz settled for fourth, keeping off a quick assault from Hamilton, who ended up fifth on the board. As for Stroll, he was maybe relieved to not get a penalty for hitting his teammate on Lap 1 and maybe extra relieved to see Alonso end on the rostrum. The Canadian made an admirable restoration from his wrist damage, nevertheless, and completed sixth between the Mercedes – as George Russell was undercut by the Aston Martin within the second pit cease and completed seventh.
Valtteri Bottas capitalised on poor begins for his rivals and completed a strong eighth for Alfa Romeo, whereas Pierre Gasly recovered from P20 for Alpine, pitting thrice, to complete ninth. Alex Albon completed tenth for Williams after an incredible begin, whereas Yuki Tsunoda narrowly missed the ultimate level in his AlphaTauri.
Rookie Logan Sargeant battled with Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu to take twelfth on debut. At the identical time, Zhou pitted on the penultimate lap of the race to advertise Kevin Magnussen – whose hard-hard-soft gambit didn’t yield factors – to P13.
Nyck de Vries took P14 on his AlphaTauri debut, leaving Nico Hulkenberg fifteenth with a five-second penalty. Zhou was categorized sixteenth for Alfa Romeo, and Lando Norris endured a troublesome race, a gradual pit cease seeing him barrel down the order. A final-lap pit cease for softs noticed the McLaren driver spherical out the standings.
Esteban Ocon had a calamitous begin to the season for Alpine, copping a five-second penalty for lining up on his grid slot incorrectly, an additional 10-second penalty for serving that penalty incorrectly, and one other 5 seconds for rushing within the pit lane. Alpine determined to retire him late on.
Leclerc was incredulous when he retired on Lap 41, and Oscar Piastri’s debut ended after simply 13 laps when he pulled into the McLaren pits with {an electrical} problem.
Meanwhile, Alonso was jubilant to take his first podium in over a yr.
And it was an ideal begin to 2023 for Red Bull – however issues can change. Just final yr, each Red Bulls retired from the season’s opening race of the season…
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