Mercedes Magic, Super Max and Ferrari Fiasco

After winning in Austria and claiming pole in France, it looked like Charles Leclerc finally turned his luck around for the championship season. After what it looked like a fantastic race for 18 laps, he spun around on lap 19 and went into the barriers. It was again a faulty throttle pedal issue that ruined his race for him.

With Charles out of the race, Max was leading the race followed by Sir Lewis and Checo Perez. It was a RedBull - Mercedes top 4 in the front. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz who started P20 after taking a grid penalty for taking a new engine was climbing up into the points like a smooth operator. An unsafe release from the Ferrari pit crew cost Carlos a podium position, which gave him a 5-second time penalty. But something was definitely wrong at the Ferrari pit wall because they called Carlos to serve that time penalty while he was in the middle of a battle with Checo for P3. But he did serve that penalty and tumbled down to p9. A disastrous call indeed.

Another safety car was triggered when Zhou stopped at the side of the track. When the safety car ended, Russell ended up passing a slow-moving Checo for the final podium position.

It was a double podium celebration for Mercedes. Carlos was voted the driver of the day for his amazing drive from P20 to P5.