A mere two weeks after having his appendix removed which caused him to miss the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Sainz returned to the top step of the podium for the third time in his F1 career, following his victory in Singapore last year.
Complaining that he’d ‘lost the car’ for a moment on the second lap alongside the Lakeside Drive section of the circuit, Sainz was able to barrel past the Red Bull with DRS open and collect the lead for his efforts.
Verstappen reported further issues with his Red Bull, which had started to precipitate the emergence of smoke from the back, which intensified around the rear-right corner of his car.
He then began to slow significantly as it became apparent that his brakes had caught fire, and he trundled back to the pits as the hub started to shed debris to retire.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20 the field at the start
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Norris had been under fire from Leclerc but, as the Ferrari driver stopped at the end of the ninth lap, focused on retaining tyre life and hung it out on the mediums until the end of the 14th lap.
This gave Leclerc the undercut, putting the Ferraris in the top two positions; Sainz pitted at the end of lap 16 to ensure he maintained the lead over his rapidly chasing team-mate.
Sainz got his lead up to 8.7 seconds before Leclerc stopped for a second time on lap 34…
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