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The penultimate Grand Prix of the year is behind us and what a race it was! Overtakes, safety cars, and penalties made it one of the most chaotic and unexpected ones of the year. But how exactly did it all go down? 

The surprises began before the race did, when Verstappen, declared the polesitter after Saturday's qualifying, was given a 1-place grid penalty for driving unnecessarily slow ahead of the Mercedes of Russell. This pushed him down to P2 on the starting grid. 

He didn't stay there for long. As soon as the red lights went out, he attacked Russell and reclaimed his spot at the front of the field. This was not the only loss for the Brit who fell down to P3, overtaken by Norris. Behind the top three, Leclerc found himself in fourth, having moved past Piastri, and Sainz moved up to sixth, following Hamilton's disastrous start that pushed him all the way down to P9.

The drivers didn't get to race for long: before lap 1 was over, two major accidents took place. In the very first turn, Ocon, Colapinto, and Hulkenberg were involved in an incident that put the first two out of contention. Further down the track, Albon made contact with Stroll, although in their case, both drivers were able to rejoin the race. 

A full safety car was brought onto the track and stayed there until the end of lap 4. As soon as racing was resumed, Verstappen made a clean break from Norris and Russel, while Piastri overtook Leclerc for P4. Behind them, Lawson, in his efforts to improve his position, pushed the Sauber of Bottass off track. The moment earned him a 10-second penalty, awarded alongside Stroll's 10-second penalty for causing the collision with Albon, and a 5-second penalty given to Hamilton for a false start. These were the first of many penalties awarded over the course of the race. Albon and Hamilton went on to continue the race but Stroll only stayed in it for long enough to serve the penalty before ultimately retiring his Aston Martin. 

At the front of the field, Verstappen began building a gap between himself and Norris, while Russell focused on fending off the attacks of Piastri. In an effort to gain an advantage over his competitors, the Mercedes driver pitted at lap 24. His strategy did not pay off: after a disastrous 7-second stop he fell all the way to 11th. 

While some of the midfielders dove into the pits for new tires, another yellow flag was shown. It was caused by a mirror that fell off one of the cars on the main straight. It wasn't cleaned up immediately, with the race directors opting to mark it with the aforementioned yellow flag for a couple of laps. Verstappen quickly reported that Norris, the man chasing him for the win, did not lift under the flag, but his complaint was pushed to the side as the mirror began causing more chaos. Bottass drove over it and, even though his car was fine, the same couldn't be said for some of the drivers who went on the main straight after him. Both Sainz and Hamilton punctured their old tires on the sharp debris and needed to immediately pit. 

This caused a second safety car to be sent onto the track as the debris was cleaned. The drivers who had not yet had the chance to change their tires jumped at the opportunity and, after the dust of their pit stops settled, a new order emerged. The top five consisted of Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc, Piastri, and Perez. 

Something curious happened as the safety car was announced to be ending. Perez suddenly tumbled down the order as he had spun and stopped on track. Soon after, Hulkenberg beached his Haas on one of the many patches of gravel. And so, less than a lap after it drove back to the pits, the safety car was deployed again. It ended for good on lap 42. 

Upon restart, Leclerc began putting pressure on Norris. He couldn't get past the McLaren and for a while it seemed like he was destined to finish the race third at best, but a penalty addressed to Norris turned his luck around. This one concerned his failure to lift under the yellow flag, as was reported by Verstappen. It was a 10-second stop-and-go penalty, which meant that it could not be added to his time at the end of the race, and had to be served in the pits. By the time he served it, he had fallen to the very back of the grid. He was promptly joined by Hamilton who was forced to drive through the pit lane, having been penalised for speeding in the same pit lane earlier in the race. 

Two more penalties were given out as the race came to an end, one given out to Albon for having caused a collision and one to Russell for an infringement of the safety car, but neither changed the final result. Verstappen, having led from start to finish, crossed the finish line first. He was followed by Leclerc and Piastri. He shared the joy of his first victory as a 4-time World Champion with his family.

With Sainz 6th and Norris 10th, Ferrari managed to decrease the gap between themselves and McLaren enough to stay in contention for the constructor's championship. The fight between the two legacy teams will continue in Abu Dhabi. The title of "Driver of the Day" was given to Zhou Guanyu, who finished 8th and scored Sauber's first points this season. 

Order of the grid:

1. Max Verstappen

2. Charles Leclerc

3. Oscar Piastri

4. George Russell

5. Pierre Gasly 

6. Carlos Sainz

7. Fernando Alonso

8. Zhou Guanyu

9. Kevin Magnussen

10. Lando Norris

11. Valtteri Bottas

12. Lewis Hamilton

13. Yuki Tsunoda

14. Liam Lawson

15. Alex Albon

DNF: Hulkenbrg, Perez, Stroll, Colapinto, Ocon