Behind Leclerc, Sainz nursed older tyres to make it a Ferrari four-five forward of Russell, whereas behind them Alonso supplied some late leisure.
Unusually, Aston Martin selected comfortable tyres for the veteran Spaniard once they stopped beneath the protection automotive, which meant one other pit cease on lap 44, with 12 to go.
The cease dropped Alonso to eleventh place, however he used his recent medium tyres to carve by way of the sphere, passing Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, Hulkenberg, Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, whose automotive was additionally broken within the Stroll/Ricciardo incident, to take seventh.
In the middle of it, he rescued a wild second on the ultimate nook whereas chasing Hamilton, dipping his proper rear wheel onto the gravel in precisely the identical means as Sainz had when crashing in qualifying on Saturday, however saving the large slide with outstanding expertise and reactions.
Piastri’s automotive had been broken in a concertina impact on the hairpin on the first restart, when Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin cannoned into Daniel Ricciardo’s RB, which then rammed Piastri.
On the primary restart lap, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen collided with Ricciardo’s team-mate Yuki Tsunoda and the 2 incidents led to the protection automotive being deployed once more.
Magnussen and Stroll had been each penalised 10 seconds for the incidents.
It was a low-key day for Hamilton, who spent the primary half complaining about missing tempo, however with the assistance of the protection automobiles managed to haul himself up into the factors in ninth, even when sixth and ninth amounted to a different chastening day for Mercedes.
