Lap 39: Go go go!
George Russell has held his nerve and has held off the Dutch four-time world champion.
Oscar Piastri does the same, fending a diving Isack Hadjar to retain third!
That was a much cleaner restart, no issues as the pack races through the old town.
Lap 38: Safety car coming in
OK, let’s try that again, shall we?
Max Vertappen vs George Russell… Finally.
And Verstappen wants to get things going early! Verstappen almost comes alongside the Englishman there under the safety car!
Lap 36: Lando Norris is out
It was Franco Colapinto who dived up the inside, locked up, and smashed into his teammate Pierre Gasly.
“Oh my f****** God, I can’t believe it. So many points gone,” says Gasly.
Gasly then collected Lando Norris.
Arvid Lindblad had nowhere to go and he’s crashed into his teammate Liam Lawson!
Lawson: “Man, I love getting taken out by my teammate, that’s pretty sick.”
Norris and Gasly are both out.
Colapinto has limped through to the pits but he’s being told to turn it off as well.
He apologises to his teammate, and the team as he gets out the car.
Lap 36: Safety car has been re-deployed!
All cars are being told to go into the pit lane.
Lap 36: Verstappen is up to second!
Max Verstappen has overtaken Oscar Piastri!
There is a crash behind at Turn One!
Lando Norris is involved in it!
George Russell is off and away again!
Lap 35: Safety car coming in this lap
It’s all going to be on this restart.
Can Piastri jump into the race lead?
Lap 34: Lapped cars can overtake the safety car
We’re preparing for a restart.
Isack has some “vibration on the gear box”.
The team suggest it might be speed they’re going at behind the safety car.
It would be awful luck for him if there is an issue.
Russell is on the soft tyre.
Piastri, medium.
Verstappen, soft.
Hadjar, Leclerc and Hamilton, medium.
This restart will be interesting.
Lap 33: Hadjar wants Verstappen’s help…
Some radio communication from Red Bull…
“If Max isn’t going to get the win, I’m going to need his help with Piastri,” Hadjar says.
“Understood,” is the reply.
The cars have all backed themselves up and are in a procession behind the safety car now.
Russell’s lead of 10 seconds has evaporated.
Lap 32: George Russell flies into the pits
Here comes the race leader.
Piastri is in.
Verstappen and Hadjar come in too, double stacking from the Red Bulls.
Charles Leclerc comes in.
Lewis Hamilton comes in too.
None of those top six cars lose position on the road.
Alex Albon’s car is still in the wall…
Lap 31: Pit stops happen
Kimi Antonelli has dived into the pits.
Lando Norris is in the pits too.
They have made a quick change.
The top six have not gone in.
Lap 30: Lando Norris with a massive lock up
That would have opened the pit stop window pretty quickly for everyone…
Lando Norris has locked up massively and almost ditched his McLaren into the wall.
He manages to hold onto it and only loses two places, as well as flat spotting his front left tyre.
Lap 28: Verstappen wants to stop
“The soft tyre can clearly go half the race,” Verstappen says on the radio.
His engineer tells him he needs to be “patient”.
The track position is clearly the issue and there is no window for him to be put into that won’t compromise his race.
Lap 27: Lewis Hamilton is struggling
“I’ve got no front now, can’t really turn,” Hamilton, who is on the soft tyre, says,
He’s the first soft tyre driver to say he’s struggling.
Lap 27: Hadjar has a go at Verstappen!
Hadjar has gone for the overtake on Verstappen!
“Can I go for it or not?” Hadjar says on the radio!
“Keep it clean,” says the team.
Max Verstappen has been told nothing and is defending.
This is Webber vs Verstappen in 2018 all over again.
Lap 25: Russell ‘nibbled’ the wall!
“I nibbled the wall on the right side,” George Russell says on team radio, asking them to check the pressures.
“It just doesn’t feel quite right,” he adds.
The team assure him everything is fine.
He hit the wall with a glance on the outside of Turn 15.
He’s clearly pushing, though.
Lap 25: Soft tyre ‘the best race tyre’
Hadjar is told that the soft tyre is “the best race tyre” and he’s told to “look after it”.
I believe that’s code for: you’re staying out for as long as you can on these.
Lap 24: George Russell is setting fastest lap after fastest lap
George Russell is flying, setting back-to-back fastest laps.
We are in the pit stop window at the moment but there is no window behind for him to drop into without being caught in traffic.
So he’ll stay out. But his lead is 9.4 seconds.
Lap 22: Fernando Alonso is out of the race
Aston Martin have decided to make a stop for Fernando Alonso.
And he’s going to stop.
Double DNF for Aston Martin.
20 of 22 runners still going around at half race distance.
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