Russell’s Mercedes stopped with its engine ablaze, Hamilton concentrated on keeping Alonso out of his DRS reach. Which was a bit of a stretch, but despite Hamilton’s fears, the tyres were up to it. Sainz came aggressively through the field to be sitting a couple of seconds behind Alonso, but Pierre Gasly’s Alpine and Stroll were hanging onto him. Perez, from the back, had made it up to fifth and possibly had Sainz in range. Nico Hülkenberg was doing a great job for Haas just behind them but eventually had to give way to Lando Norris’ McLaren. Just behind that team mate Oscar Piastri got the upper hand in a fight with Yuki Tsunoda, and Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa took advantage to also pass the AlphaTauri.
The stalemate was broken just four laps from the end when Kevin Magnussen stripped his right-rear tyre off the rim against the Turn 2 wall. He pulled over, trailing wheel rim and other debris in his wake. Out came the safety car followed by another red flag. And a third standing start.
Verstappen this time got away well, with Hamilton slotting in behind. Sainz, seeing opportunity that wasn’t really there, misjudged things into Turn 1 and hit Alonso into a spin. Chaos ensued and within it the Alpine team was eliminated as Gasly wedged in team-mate Esteban Ocon between himself and the wall. Another red flag. But with not enough laps left to do another racing lap. With the requirement to run the race to full completion if it is still in the time window, the grid lined up again minus the damaged cars – which meant that Alonso’s undamaged car was able to restart from its third position – and escorted to the chequered flag.
Like that, Verstappen won another grand prix, with Hamilton and Alonso joining him on the podium, all having driven like the champions they are. Although Sainz was fourth across the line, his 5sec penalty for the Alonso incident dropped him out of the points.