After spots of rain had fallen sporadically as the cars initially lined up on the grid 20 minutes ahead of the scheduled start time – already pushed back by 35 minutes thanks to the similar delay to the start of sprint shootout qualifying – it began coming down heavily 10 minutes later.
This led the FIA to officially delay the start before it announced the formation lap would begin at 17.12 – a postponement of just seven minutes - but continuing rainfall resulted in an indefinite extension to the pre-race pause.
As it had eased by 17.20 and the marshals and track vehicles working to clear as much standing water as possible, it was again announced the formation lap would be attempted at 17.35.
This was then clarified as being run behind the safety car, which mandated that all the cars started the race on full wet tyres.
They were sent around for five formation tours, which was originally announced as four before one more was added in a bid to clear more water by the cars running at reduced speed.
This meant when the action did get going the distance was reduced from 15 to 11 laps, with several drivers including polesitter Verstappen reporting conditions were already good enough for intermediate tyres early in the initial formational lap procession.
When the safety car finally peeled in, nearly 20 minutes after the race should have finished per the timetable before the sprint shootout qualifying delay was enacted, plenty of drivers opted to pit.
Source: Autosport