Hamilton went on to take fifth place from Piastri as he looked to close the gap on team-mate Russell, but Russell, meanwhile, was told he had “asymmetry” in his front wing. Another driver who struggled was Colapinto, who reported steering problems while trying to hold off Magnussen in a battle for ninth position.
On lap 40, Piastri and Lawson made their pit stops to change the hard tyre, leaving only Colapinto, Bottas, Ocon and Zhou to visit the pits. Overhead, the sky seemed increasingly gray and Russell soon noticed small drops of rain in his viewfinder.
Further ahead, Sainz led Leclerc by six seconds, while Norris had a deficit of just under five seconds on Leclerc as the Briton looked to maximize his points with Verstappen again in sixth. Meanwhile, Perez pitted again for another set of medium tires and the local hero had a difficult afternoon, finishing in 17th place.
Norris set the fastest lap of the race on lap 47, the gap to Leclerc had narrowed to just over four seconds, and his teammate Piastri was busy trying to find a way to overtake Colapinto for ninth place, before the Australian was freed as the Williams finally headed to the pits. A slightly slow stop took him to P15.
With Hamilton chasing Russell in fourth, the latter was told the duo were “free to race”. The fight was developing 12 seconds behind Verstappen in sixth, while Magnussen, Hulkenberg, Piastri and Gasly were the final top 10.