Thus, in the first start of the 2023 season, there were no positional changes among the top six drivers.
The upcoming T2 and T3 corners didn't offer any overtaking points, but they smoothly arranged the congested car formation ahead.
Verstappen was still leading the way, and within three corners, he managed to pull away at least 0.4 seconds from Hamilton behind him.
Perez was also within 0.3 seconds of Hamilton after exiting the corner.
However, Qin Miao's exit line on T1 was interfered with by Leclerc on the outside, so when exiting the corner, Qin Miao couldn't start accelerating early, making the distance between Qin Miao and Perez quite large, about 0.4 seconds.
But no matter how you look at it, it's better to have a slight disadvantage than to lose position.
Over on Leclerc's side, he tried to fight Qin Miao for position in T2 but got squeezed off the track by Qin Miao, losing some speed. It was the only chance for Qin Miao to attack in this race, and it was missed.
