Absolute confusion took over the grid as drivers headed out for the grand prix, with a software glitch striking the field and causing cars to slow to a crawl or stop entirely. Some power units managed to spring back into life, while others refused to cooperate. As RaceFans reports, race control ultimately abandoned the start and called the field back to the pits so the FIA could push out a software update, halting proceedings for nearly an hour.
The widespread problem hit the grid in wildly different ways. At the front, Max Verstappen's car nearly ground to a halt before a quick steering wheel switch change solved the issue. Verstappen was also unhappy that his side of the grid was wetter than the opposite side, and later spotted a nail in his tyre back in the pits. Lewis Hamilton was hit by the fault at the exact same time as Verstappen, though Ferrari had a harder time finding a fix. Hamilton correctly guessed the power loss stemmed from circuit-specific power unit configuration settings, while engineer Santi sounded jubilant when a restart finally worked.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli appeared to be one of the lucky ones unaffected by the trouble. Though Antonelli saw Verstappen's Red Bull-Ford power unit struggle, his race engineer Peter Bonnington suggested the issue was confined to Ferrari power units—even though Lando Norris, who also uses Mercedes power, suffered a power loss too. Charles Leclerc's Ferrari power unit recovered more easily than his teammate's, though Leclerc still doubted some instructions from race engineer Bryan Bozzi. Norris lost power around the same time as Verstappen, leading to some confusion with race engineer Will Joseph before the issue cleared up quickly. Unfortunately, Norris later skidded off the track at turn 12 while trying to catch up, blaming the car's power delivery.
Further down the order, Oscar Piastri avoided the power loss entirely, unlike his teammate. George Russell received messages similar to teammate Antonelli, and suspected the Ferrari drivers could lose their starting positions after being overtaken by other cars. Isack Hadjar suffered an early spin on the first lap and had to pass cars to regain his place, but the delay triggered by his teammate's software problem allowed him to catch up as Red Bull advised him on how to avoid the power unit fault. Alpine struggled with radio problems for Pierre Gasly at the start.
Gabriel Bortoleto led the field into the pits when the start was aborted, but Audi could not get his powerless car back up to speed. Liam Lawson battled radio issues before losing power himself while trying to catch up to the Safety Car. Fernando Alonso, running further back in the Aston Martin, initially suspected Verstappen had slowed to help teammate Hadjar recover lost places—though Red Bull had not actually told Verstappen about the incident. Aston Martin informed Alonso he could pass Hamilton first and then anyone else with the same problem, leaving Alonso disappointed when the start was ultimately abandoned just as he looked poised to gain places.
