Just a few moments later, Piastri was looking racy into the second chicane and swept into the lead ahead of Norris. Leclerc then took advantage to also snatch a position from the latter McLaren, dropping Norris down into P3. Further back, Russell – now in P7 – looked to have picked up damage to his front wing endplate.
Elsewhere, the stewards had noted Ricciardo and Hulkenberg for an incident at the start, with replays showing that the two had made contact after Hulkenberg was squeezed by the Australian.
“Ricciardo pushed me into the gravel,” the Haas driver reported, before then being noted for a second incident involving the other RB of Tsunoda after the pair touched into Turn 1. Amidst all of this, Hulkenberg was the first to visit the pits on Lap 6, leaving with a new front wing and some hard tyres.
Up ahead, Piastri was leading from Leclerc by just under one second as Lap 8 ticked down, with Norris still running in third around two seconds back from his team mate. The RBs, meanwhile, were not having an ideal afternoon, with Tsunoda retiring following his contact with Hulkenberg while Ricciardo had been given a five-second penalty for his collision with the German.
The stewards were being kept occupied, as Hulkenberg himself was hit with a 10-second penalty for causing the Tsunoda incident. It was also getting busy on the track, with Perez overtaking Russell for seventh place. As such, the Mercedes dived into the pits on Lap 12 to bolt on a new front wing along with a set of hard tyres, dropping him down to P16.
