Before long, what had been a soporific race turned into a surreal one.
First, Stroll crashed his Aston Martin at the final corner, causing a first safety car.
As the cars prepared to get going again, Leclerc crashed at the same place in the same way even before the race had restarted.
Leclerc said “today I look like an idiot” but blamed his Ferrari’s brakes for the crash.
He told Sky Sports: “I would hate to look at myself in the mirror and see myself finding excuses when I do a mistake, so that’s why I’m always bluntly honest when I’m in front of cameras. But I’m not going to take any of it today.”
That incident led to a red flag as officials took a look at the track surface at the crumbling final corner, known as Antony Noghes.
And that meant another restart that Antonelli had to negotiate, this time with the fast-starting Ferrari alongside him.
But again he was perfect and the race surrendered to him.
Hadjar drove an excellent race battling power-unit problems and was helped by a masterstroke from Red Bull in not stopping under the first safety car, which gained him positions on Russell and Piastri.
Racing Bulls had a good day with Arvid Lindblad taking the best result of his rookie season with sixth place behind team-mate Liam Lawson.
Gasly was seventh ahead of the Williams of Alex Albon and Esteban Ocon’s Haas.
And Sergio Perez took 10th for what could be the first point for the new Cadillac team, although he faces an investigation for being incorrectly positioned on the restart after the red flag.
If he is penalised, the final point will mark the first of the season for Aston Martin, for whom Fernando Alonso finished 11th.
And there may be questions as to why so many drivers – more than a quarter of the grid – ended up speeding in the pit lane.
