Kevin Magnussen and Nyck de Vries started from pit lane as changes were made to their cars outside of parc fermé regulations.
17 of the 20 drivers selected medium tyres for the start, with Alonso, Bottas and Magnussen starting on hards.
Off the line and into turns 3 and 4, Max Verstappen managed to fend off Charles Leclerc as the Ferrari put in multiple attacks on the Dutchman.
Hamilton got ahead of Norris into turn 1 as Lance Stroll had to basically stop to avoid hitting the Brit. He lost out to Alonso and Hülkenberg because of that.
The AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda clipped his front wing against Ocon in turn 1 and damaged his wing. He would go off at turn 4 as he braked too late and had to avoid Alex Albon. Tsunoda would pit for a new front wing, with Kevin Magnussen also boxing to change tyres.
A Safety Car was deployed beacuse of the debris from the incident involving the Japanese driver.
On the restart, Verstappen led Leclerc, Sainz, Hamilton, Norris, Alonso, Hülkenberg, Stroll, Gasly and Albon.
The Haas of Nico Hülkenberg once again showed tyre degradation as he lost positions to Stroll and Gasly. He would pit on lap 12 to change tyres.
From P15 on the grid, Sergio Pérez overtook Ocon, Russell and Albon to move himself into P9.
A virtual safety car was deployed on lap 15 as Nico Hülkenberg’s Haas packed up with what appeared to be smoke coming from his car.
Most of the grid pitted under VSC, apart from the Red Bulls. The order was left as Verstappen, Leclerc, Pérez, Hamilton, Norris, Sainz, Alonso, Tsunoda, Bottas and Gasly.
Sainz lost four spots with the double stacks, with Stroll losing a whopping eight positions.
Nonetheless, the Spaniard quickly worked his way back through and overtook Norris, Hamilton and Pérez in five laps to regain his P3 spot.
5-second penalties were dished out to Hamilton and Tsunoda for exceeding track limits too many times in the opening 20 laps.
In the midfield, there was countless amount of close battles as Magnussen, Bottas and Tsunoda on older tyres starting dropping back and saw up to three and four car battles at a time. Gasly, Russell and Albon fought their way through to be P8, P9 and P10.
Unfortunately for Oscar Piastri, he clipped his front wing against Kevin Magnussen at turn 3 as the Dane was baulked by the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.
Verstappen and Pérez boxed on laps 25 and 26 respectively. The Dutchman rejoined in P3 and the Mexican in 12th.
The World Champion breezed by Sainz on lap 26 using his fresh hard tyres versus much older mediums.
Carlos Sainz joined the 5-second time penalty club for going over track limits one too many times as well. Albon and Gasly joined the club soon after.
In a separate incident, Ocon got the same time penalty for
Within ten laps of his stop, Pérez had overtaken Ocon, Albon, Russell and Gasly to move into P7.
The race lead changed on lap 35 as Max Verstappen cruised by on Charles Leclerc into turn 3 on much better tyres.
A 5-second penalty was handed out to Nyck de Vries for forcing Kevin Magnussen off and into the gravel at turn 6.
On lap 40, Verstappen led Leclerc, Sainz, Norris, Hamilton, Alonso, Pérez, Gasly, Russell and Albon. Pérez continued his charge by passing Alonso a tour later.
Most of the top drivers would pit between laps 41 to 51. Hamilton had to serve his penalty and this allowed Fernando Alonso to get in front of his former teammate.
In the net battle for P3, Carlos Sainz returned to the track on lap 46 after serving his penalty + stop just behind Norris. The Spaniard swooped around the outside at turn 4 with a beautiful move on his former teammate to reclaim the position.
Following the second round of stops, the order was Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Norris, Pérez, Alonso, Hamilton, Russell, Stroll and Gasly.
A mistake on lap 56 at turn 3 from Norris opened the door for Perez to zoom through as the Red Bull steamed up to the battle between the Brit and Spaniard.
Tsunoda’s nightmare day continued as he ended up with a 10-second penalty for track limit violations. Sargeant and Magnussen then also got hit with a 5-second penalty for the same reason.
Pérez immediately was on Sainz but the Spaniard produced some heroic defending on lap 59 as he measured the DRS activation line perfectly to get it on the run down to turn 4. He got back by on Pérez but went slightly deep and the pair went side-by-side into 6, with the Ferrari hanging on.
Unfortunately for Sainz, the Mexican driver found his way through two laps later to finally take 3rd.
On his 3-stop strategy, Lance Stroll came back through to overtake Alex Albon to take the final point.
Out front, Verstappen could pit at the end of lap 69 to put on fresh softs to get the fastest lap. He duly delivered as a 1:07.012 gave him the maximum 26 points.
Photo credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Excellent, clean races from Charles Leclerc
and Sergio Pérez saw them join the Dutch driver on the podium.
Sainz, Norris, Alonso, Hamilton, Russell, Gasly and Stroll completed the points finishers in a race that saw lots of action around the Red Bull Ring.
