Naturally, Sainz was unwilling to just give up his pole position, so after being overtaken by Verstappen at T1, he prepared to switch lines to see if he could reclaim his position.
Qin Miao also had a good start, but it wasn't decisive in terms of speed.
Though Sainz's start wasn't as good as Verstappen's, the acceleration capability of that damn Ferrari engine in the mid-to-late segments was incredible.
Even if Qin Miao's reaction time at the start was faster than Sainz's, he couldn't catch up to Sainz during acceleration in the later stages.
Meanwhile, on Qin Miao's inside line, Hamilton's start wasn't worse than Qin Miao's, it was even slightly better, coupled with the advantage in engine durability, so Hamilton was closely tailing Qin Miao on the inside line, creating another dangerously close waltz between the two Mercedes on the track.
