Just moments later, Piastri looked blazing fast through the second chicane to take the lead ahead of Norris. Leclerc then took advantage to also take a position off the last McLaren, dropping Norris down to P3. Further back, Russell – now in P7 – looked to have suffered damage to his front wing endplate.

Elsewhere, stewards had flagged down Ricciardo and Hulkenberg for an incident at the start. Replays showed the pair had made contact after Hulkenberg was pinched by the Australian.

“Ricciardo pushed me into the gravel,” the Haas driver reported, before being spotted for a second incident with the other RB of Tsunoda after the pair touched down at Turn 1. Amid all this, Hulkenberg was the first to visit the pits on Lap 6, and set off with a new front wing and a pair of hard tyres.

At the front, Piastri held a lead of just under a second over Leclerc as lap 8 drew to a close, with Norris still in third place, around two seconds behind his team-mate. The RBs, meanwhile, were having an uneventful afternoon, with Tsunoda retiring after contact with Hulkenberg, while Ricciardo was handed a five-second penalty for his collision with the German.

The stewards were kept busy, as Hulkenberg himself was given a 10-second penalty for causing the Tsunoda incident. The track was also getting busy, with Perez overtaking Russell for seventh place. As a result, the Mercedes pitted on lap 12 to fit a new front wing, along with a set of hard tyres, dropping it to P16.