Sprint Race Report - Vertappen wins over Hamilton

Max Verstappen
© Red Bull

Max Verstappen won the opening Sprint race of the season in his Red Bull-Honda over Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton took the lead into the first corner, with pole sitter Lando Norris trying to hold on around the outside, but then running out of road and dropping back to seventh.

Early on Alonso ran second over Verstappen, until Verstappen was able to make a DRS pass on lap 7 to take the place.

At the end of lap 8 Hamilton locked up his brakes, allowing Verstappen to close in and take the lead the next lap with a DRS pass.

Alonso ran third staying in front of a gaggle of cars. On lap 16 Sainz battled side-by-side with Alonso, the two went slightly wide and Perez was able to jump both of them to take third, then Sainz and Leclerc getting ahead of Alonso to take fourth and five. Alonso then pitted with a punctured tyre and retired.

On lap 17 Leclerc was able to get ahead of his team mate for fourth.

At the checked flag on lap 19, Verstappen won over Hamilton by 13 seconds, and Perez in third. Leclerc was fourth, followed by Sainz, Norris, Piastri, Russell, Zhou and Magnussen tenth.