All of this led to a lot of action in the pitlane, with much of the second half of the field arriving – but by the time Russell and Norris made their stops, the VSC had ended, meaning the pair were a bit surprised. This dropped them to fourth and fifth, but Norris soon reversed these positions as Russell struggled for grip.

The safety car was then called on lap 30 due to the deteriorating conditions, with Ocon leading the race by eight seconds over Verstappen and Gasly, a trio who had all yet to pit. Norris remained fourth ahead of Russell, while Piastri received a 10-second time penalty for a collision with Lawson.

On lap 32, the red flag was raised for Colapinto after a serious accident. Luckily, the Argentinian driver escaped uninjured after crashing heavily into the guardrails. This marked the end of a miserable day for Williams, as Albon was unable to start at all after his incident in qualifying.

This meant that the rest of the field returned to the pit lane with just over half of the race distance to go – and everyone now had the opportunity to change their tires. During this break, Piastri went to Lawson to apologize, while Hülkenberg learned that he had been given a black flag for assistance from the marshals when he returned to the track after his retirement, meaning he was withdrawn from the event was disqualified.

When racing resumed at 2:02 p.m. local time, conditions were still wet. The safety car led the field for a lap before Ocon took over, while the Alpine easily defended the lead from Verstappen. Behind them, Norris went wide at Turn 4, allowing Russell fourth, while Hamilton took ninth from Alonso and Leclerc also had a moment as the Ferrari ran between Norris and Piastri.