The team decided to split the strategies between its two drivers with Charles starting on Mediums and Lewis, looking for an aggressive first stint, on Softs. It paid off as the Englishman was already P14 at the end of the opening lap.

Charles dropped down one place and was 10th. On lap 7 the Safety Car was deployed following a crash between Nico Hülkenberg and Pierre Gasly and most drivers stopped for the first of their mandatory two pit stops, given the requirement to run no more than 25 laps on any one set of tyres in a 57 lap race. Charles rejoined in tenth place, Lewis, due to traffic in the pit lane, was 15th. Both fitted Medium tyres. At the end of the Safety Car period and the run of pit stops Charles was up to P9 and Lewis to P14. On lap 32, all drivers who had stopped 25 laps earlier, including Charles and Lewis, pitted again. The Monegasque rejoined on Hards, the Englishman on Mediums once again in the same positions following the second run of pit stops. Charles took the chequered flag in eigth place, with Lewis 12th.

Charles Leclerc: It's been a really difficult weekend for us. We just didn't have the pace we needed and none of the changes we made improved our outlook.

On a positive note, I look forward to Abu Dhabi and want to finish the season on a high. We will do everything to extract the maximum from our car and I hope to jump on the podium one last time this year, to give the whole team a positive feeling before the holidays.

Lewis Hamilton: We made a positive start and gained a few positions in the first stint, but the Safety Car didn't play to our advantage and I lost two positions after the double stack. From that point I found myself in a DRS train, which made progress difficult on a circuit where overtaking is limited. The focus in now on Abu Dhabi, and hopefully we can end the season on a stronger note.

Fred Vasseur: We knew this circuit would be more difficult than the previous one for us and all weekend long, we were unable to find the right set-up. We struggled to run the cars with the very high tyre pressures mandated here and we clearly took a step backwards. A couple of races ago we were on the podium and today we were fighting for P10. For sure, it's been tough. Next week in Abu Dhabi we can expect to be back to the more normal pressures, so we can hope for a better weekend. I can perfectly understand the frustration that everyone, the drivers, the mechanics, the engineers, is feeling tonight and we are sorry for our fans. But right from tomorrow morning, we will react as a team, we will be back at work trying to prepare as well as we can for Abu Dhabi.