At the end of the first lap, Sainz was within 0.4 seconds behind Verstappen.
In the braking zone at T1, Gasly surprisingly overtook Verstappen effortlessly.
While everyone was surprised at how easily a Ferrari could take down a Red Bull.
Just halfway through the second lap, Red Bull's Verstappen's TR sounded: "This stupid gear sync setting keeps erroring!"
"Copy MAX, we'll deal with it from here, don't worry."
Turns out, Verstappen became easy prey for Ferrari due to a gear issue.
Now it made sense.
Meanwhile, Hamilton, starting from the back of the grid, had already moved up to sixteenth.
Despite not having DRS enabled yet, Mercedes' new internal combustion engine's exaggerated top speed and acceleration allowed Hamilton to effortlessly overtake drivers ahead at T1 with its tailwind.
Third lap, Hamilton chased up to fourteenth.
Fourth lap, Verstappen reclaimed his position, seemingly due to the team remotely fixing his gear issue.
Sixth lap, Hamilton moved up to twelfth.
