All of this led to a lot of action in the pitlane, with the majority of the second half of the field coming in – but by the time Russell and Norris had stopped, the VSC had finished, and the pair found themselves somewhat caught up. I meant it. This dropped them to fourth and fifth, but Norris quickly reversed positions as Russell struggled to gain grip.
Conditions then deteriorated and the safety car was brought out on lap 30, allowing Ocon to lead the race by eight seconds over the trio of Verstappen and Gasly, who had not yet pitted. Norris maintained fourth place behind Russell, but Piastri had been given a 10-second time penalty for causing a collision with Lawson.
On lap 32, Colapinto had a serious crash which brought out the red flag, but the Argentine driver hit the barrier hard but fortunately returned unscathed. This ended a disastrous day for Williams, where Albon was unable to start at all after an accident in qualifying.
This meant that the rest of the pack returned to the pit lane with just over half the race distance remaining, allowing everyone to change tires. During this pause, Piastri went to apologize to Lawson, while Hulkenberg learned that when he returned to the track from his off-season, he was black flagged for receiving assistance from marshals and disqualified from the competition.
Conditions were still wet when the race resumed at 14:02 local time, and after one lap of the Tour led by the safety car, Ocon took over and Alpine smoothly maintained the lead from Verstappen. Behind him, Norris went wide at Turn 4 and Russell moved into fourth place, while Hamilton took ninth from Alonso and Leclerc also had a split second chance, with the Ferrari running between Norris and Piastri. .
