It's the second win of the season for Charles Leclerc, followed by Sergio Perez in P2 after Verstappen's failure in the second half of the race. The podium is completed by George Russell for his first joy with Mercedes, as Hamilton has to be satisfied with P4. 

McLaren has improved a lot since the first rounds with Norris and Ricciardo ending up in P5 and P6. Ocon keeps up his running point streak in P8, and the top ten is completed by Gasly, Bottas and the superb Albon.

It's a good start for Lewis Hamilton and immediately moves up to P3. The drivers on hards, however, struggled a lot, with Carlos Sainz even losing five positions. Lando Norris had to concede two positions as well.

At the beginning of Lap 2 Sainz, in extremely evident troubles, loses his car and ends up in the gravel at Turn 10, issuing a VSC. Not an ideal weekend for the Spaniard after two podiums in the first two rounds of the season as it will probably cost him his P2 in the drivers'standings.

At the extremely top of the grid, Leclerc has managed to keep the race lead with 0.7s on Verstappen, who had a number of components changed on his car overnight, as well as his teammate Sergio Perez.

Lance Stroll, not having a good feeling with his starting hard tyres, took advantage of the Safety Car to pit for mediums, only for him to return to the pits in a lap time to return on hards.

Porpoising is very much an issue at the restart, with the drivers wobbling up and down, but no changes to the former positions were made, as Leclerc rebuilds his previous 0.7s gap on Verstappen by the end of the first lap.

Lewis Hamilton, however, lost a lot of ground to the first two drivers, as Perez overtook him on the inside at Turn 3 in Lap 10 after a couple of tries. 

Sebastian Vettel in his first ever race under the new regulation, goes wide off track ending up in the gravel, but is able to resume his race.

To consolidate his lead, Leclerc pulls an impressive series of fastest laps, increasing his advantage on Verstappen to 3s. Verstappen laments tyre issues after suffering from a lock-up, aiding Leclerc’s gap growth.

While fighting for P12 with Tsunoda, Kevin Magnussen went wide on the grass, but was able to keep control of it and not going in the gravel. The Dane had gained the position on his teammate Mick Schumacher after he ran wide at Turn 12.

Ocon opens the pit sequence, restarting his race last on his fresh mediums. In spite of Sainz’s previous issue, hards don’t look like a bad option as Alonso is still holding on to his starting P10 even with a bruised hand after his qualifying crash.

Verstappen is the second to stop, swapping his C3 for hards and reentering the race in P7, with Alonso overtaking Gasly for P8, followed by Perez and Norris.

Leclerc and Hamilton wait for Lap 23 to stop, as the Brit manages to exit in front of Perez, that overtakes him on the outside of Turn 10. Russell is able to take advantage of a safety car issued after Vettel’s crash to pit and keep momentarily his P3 on both Hamilton and Perez.

In the meantime, Stroll goes for his third pit, while Schumacher almost makes contact with a much slower Tsunoda. Alonso, Magnussen and Albon are the only drivers yet to pit.

At the restart, Verstappen is extremely close to Leclerc, that made a mistake while restarting, but doesn’t manage to complete the overtake. The Monegasque is quick to rebuild a good gap on him.

Perez and Hamilton both overtake Alonso for P4 and P5 respectively, with the Red Bull driver going on to catch Russell. Perez only gets Russell when the Brit is reminded on the radio that tyre management is more important than keeping the position

Shockingly after signing a fastest lap Verstappen is forced to retire due to unconfirmed issues. He pulls over as fire starts coming out of his rear. Under the VSC, Alonso and Magnussen both pit.

Stroll completes a double overtake on Bottas and Gasly after the restart, forcing the Finn off track. He ends up in P9 but gets 5s of penalty for weaving on the straight, with no further action for the overtake.

The Canadian is overtook by Gasly on lap 51, but he manages to keep the position on Bottas.

In the final 10 laps, Leclerc signs a number of fastest laps, extending his gap on Perez to 15.8 seconds. The Mexican loses even more time to Leclerc by going wide at Turn 13, ending up only with only a second on Russell.

Alonso loses a couple of position# due to severe blistering and is pitted an extra time for mediums, trying to go for the fastest lap. Gasly goes wide and loses the position to Bottas at turn 13 as well. 

Albon pits on the final lap, ending the race in P10 and scoring Williams' first point of 2022.

RACE CLASSIFICATION 📊

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