Polesitter Lewis Hamilton held onto his lead at the start but there was carnage behind after Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas got an awful getaway and dropped down the order. The Finn got his braking all wrong into Turn 1 andℱ rear-ended Lando Norris’ McLaren.

Norris’ car then slammed into Verstappen, who was able to continu൲e but suffered damage to the fl🐷oor and bargeboards of his Red Bull.

Sergio Perez was also caught up in the collision and was forced to retire, along wi🧔th Bottas, Norris, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll, all of whom were involved in the melee at Turn 1.

The race is currently under red ཧflag conditions while significant debris is cleared awa🐭y by the marshals.

At the time the red flag was deployed, Hamilton was leading from Esteban Ocon, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz, Yuki Tsunoda, Nicholas Latifi, Fernando Alonso, George Russell, Kimi Raikk💯onen and Mick Schumacher.

Verstappen had d✃ropped to 13th after making a pit stop. Crucially for the world championship lജeader, Red Bull will be able to work on his car to fix the damage during the suspension.