Vettel was the first of the top four to pit on lap 18, emerging just in front of Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who had pitted the previous lap after quietly going about his business in fifth place, and was soon looking for a way past the German. The Dutchman made a DRS-assisted lunge down the inside of Vettel at the hairpin but the Ferrari was able to edge back in front on the exit of the corner, nudging Verstappen onto the grass as he did so.

Vettel was now setting faster lap times on his fresh rubber, prompting Mercedes to bring Bottas in for tyres on lap 22, the Finn emerging in third ahead of the Vettel-Verstappen battle but behind Leclerc, who stopped the following lap and emerged in fifth, while Hamilton was able to pit without losing his lead.

With the dust having settled on the tyre stops, Hamilton now led Bottas by 1.6s on lap 26, with Vettel 7.6s behind the Finn in third and seemingly unable to cope with the pace of the two Mercedes.

Elsewhere in the race, Alex Albon had been quietly impressive in his Toro Rosso, up into 12th place by this point after starting from the pitlane following a heavy practice crash. By contrast, his teammate Kvyat was having a torrid time, with a slow pit stop adding to his previous woes. The Russian made another unscheduled stop midway through the race for a new nose cone, and would ultimately retire from a forgettable race on lap 44.

Kimi Raikkonen also looked in fighting mood, the Alfa Romeo driver overtaking both Haas cars within a couple of laps of each other to move up to ninth after his late pit stop. Albon soon also overtook the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, who was struggling with a lack of pace and was then passed again by Lance Stroll's Racing Point.

Verstappen's second pit stop on lap 35 triggered all the front-runners to likewise, with Vettel following in on lap 36 and Mercedes notably double-stacking their two drivers on lap 37, with Bottas imploring the team not to make him lose time while his mechanics served Hamilton's car. But while the Briton once again emerged without losing his lead, Bottas found himself held up behind the Ferrari of Leclerc, who hadn't pitted and soon had his mirrors full of the Mercedes.