the race was marked by several incidents. on the first lap at turn 2, max verstappen, pierre gasly, kimi räikkönen, and romain grosjean collided, resulting in gasly and verstappen retiring from the race and räikkönen having to change his front wing. verstappen's car was beached in the gravel trap. a separate incident at the same corner involved carlos sainz jr. and lance stroll, as sainz spun round and damaged sebastian vettel's front wing. these incidents together brought out the safety car. on lap 6 the safety car pulled in, but an accordion effect led the midfield drivers to accelerate up to racing speed before the leaders did and were forced to brake, triggering a collision involving sainz, kevin magnussen, antonio giovinazzi, and nicholas latifi. grosjean blamed the leader, valtteri bottas, for causing the accordion effect, and stated "this is the worst thing i've seen ever." all four drivers retired from the race and the red flag was brought out. during the red flag period, esteban ocon retired due to a brake failure; george russell had earlier reported ocon's brakes being on fire. the second red flag came on lap 45, after stroll suffered a tyre failure at lap 43 turn 9, and went into the barrier. his racing point rp20 caught on fire, making it harder for the marshalls to clear the track.