Leclerc crowned with epic
into an early lead, easily beating Ghiotto and Sette Camara away from the grid, and was 11.4s clear of Rowland, who had fought his way up to second after a lock-up in qualifying had left him starting fourth, after 11 laps.
The pair pitted on lap 12 of the 39-lap race, with Leclerc emerging comfortably back in the net lead, but behind the drivers who had started on the mediums, who were led by Nicholas Latifi. Rowland had been undercut by Alexander Albon and Sette Camara, and had to pass them, which he did with decisive moves before setting off after Leclerc and reeling off a string of rapid laps.
As it entered its final quarter, with the medium starters back down the order on softs, this largely uneventful race was turned on its head. Santino Ferrucci and Nobuharu Matsushita clashed at Turn 1 on lap 32, putting the
American out of the race, and the safety car was deployed. Leclerc’s advantage was suddenly gone.
Ferrucci’s stricken car was cleared away after three laps, and Leclerc thought he had one lap to survive. His cause was aided by the lapped Sean Gelael being in front of Rowland at the restart, which gave Leclerc the chance to set off on one last charge to take glory. Except it wasn’t – Prema had mistakenly told him the first lap after the restart was going to be the final tour.
“[But then they said] ‘there is an error – there’s two laps more’, and I had absolutely no tyres left. So I was like, ‘Now it’s going to be very hard’,” Leclerc explained.
The final two laps were nailbitingly exciting as Rowland suddenly closed in on the lead and put Leclerc under severe pressure. To add to the chaos, Gelael and Louis Deletraz – also a lap down on fresher tyres – were faster than both