In a race that had six retirements in the 20-car field, Sergio Perez was able to hang onto the lead after taking it on lap one all the way to the checkered flag.
It’s the fourth career win for the Mexican driver and came on a night that his teammate Max Verstappen could have clinched the championship. Instead, however, everything and the kitchen sink was thrown at the Dutchman.
Verstappen stalled out at the start and fell all the way to 13th on the opening lap after starting eighth. He climbed his way up to 10th by the end of the second lap and kept marching through the field during the race until flat spotting his tires and having to pit on lap 40. Verstappen charged once again and finished seventh, leaving the championship up for grabs for at least one more race.
Charles Leclerc finished second and Carlos Sainz took the final step on the podium in third. The McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo had an excellent points day; with both Alpines not finishing the race, Norris’ fourth and Ricciardo’s fifth places destroyed the 18-point gap the French automaker had built on McLaren for fourth in the constructor championship.
Thanks to attrition, the Aston Martins of Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel had great days as well, finishing sixth and eighth respectively. Pierre Gasly ended the day in 10th, getting the final point.
The start of the grand prix was delayed an hour due to heavy rainfall. The first half of the race was ran under wet conditions, with every driver on intermediates. The FIA’s two-hour limit expired on lap 58, calling the race three hours early.
On lap seven, Nicholas Latifi swerved into the wall and collected Zhou Guanyu in turn five. Zhou stalled out in the run-off area, and removing his Alfa Romeo necessitated a full-course safety car. Latifi made it back to pit road, albeit slowly with a puncture, but retired his Williams.
Fernando Alonso blew an engine in turn 10 on lap 21, causing a brief virtual safety car.
In his return race from appendicitis, Alex Albon ran out of grip in turn eight and drove into the wall on lap 26. Albon was able to make it back to pit road with a puncture and no front wing, but retired from the race. The virtual safety car came out once again prior to going back to green flag conditions. A couple of laps later, Esteban Ocon also blew his engine to go along with his teammate Alonso and stalled out in turn 13, causing yet another virtual safety car.
The next driver to have issues was Lewis…
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