George Russell: "I'm OK. There was nowhere I could go."

Pierre Gasly was already on the hard tyres at the start of the race so he hasn't come into the pits and as a result he inherits fourth place. He started 12th

Matthew: Ouch! That's a big one! Thankfully Gio and Russell are okay!

quixoticgeek: The carbon across the track is going to make tyre strategy rather interesting in the rest of the race.

Rachel T: That must have been absolutely terrifying for George.

Josh Earl: Heavy collision, glad to see both drivers are okay.

Lewis Hamilton: "There's a lot of debris."

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

Russell was minding his own business trying to watch Giovinazzi's car but his wheel was bouncing across. Never like to see that.

Plain bad luck for Russell but a poor error for Giovinazzi, just losing it on the throttle.

We're seeing that incident again involving Giovinazzi and Russell and the young Brit is hugely unlucky.

Giovinazzi loses it, spins, goes into the wall and his wheel comes loose, bounces in front of Russell, causing the Williams to go into the wall too.

Russell is unlucky in a racing point of view, hugely lucky in a not being hurt point of view.

The leaders also come into the pits. It's not brilliant from Mercedes on Valtteri Bottas, who just about gets back out in front of Max Verstappen.

Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen all go on to the hard tyres and they will hope that's their pitlane activity done for the day.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

Nasty looking crash. Great to see both drivers out and walking away, though.

The safety car means there is a flurry of activity in the pits. Chance for Ferrari to gain an advantage. Nope, they bungle a Charles Leclerc stop. Aargh!

This looks a big smash. Antonio Giovinazzi and George Russell's cars are mangled. Both men are out of their cars and thankfully look OK.

Max Verstappen: "It is like I have no grip on these tyres."

Two2Four: Red Bull really should be considering Gasly again, on the hard compound and looking the real deal.

AGL: If this is how slow the Ferrari’s are on the main straight in Spa, Monza is going to be painful for the Italian team.

1. Hamilton (mediums)
2. Bottas (+1.8, mediums)
3. Verstappen (+5.7, mediums)
4. Ricciardo (+13, softs)
5. Ocon (+15.4, softs)
6. Albon (+17.1, softs)
7. Stroll (+21.2, softs)
8. Gasly (+22.3, hards)
9. Perez (24, softs)
10. Norris (+26.3, softs)

Flawless so far from Lewis Hamilton. His lead over his team-mate is at 1.5 seconds with Hamilton currently holding the fastest lap. That's an extra point on offer if he keeps it.

Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live

Bit feisty from Bottas. It is neither here or there right now and unless one push will make him a rocket down the straight it won't make a difference.

This is the kind of thing Rosberg and Hamilton had in the duel in the desert and it made them fall out in the end.

Sho: Ferraris looking hopeless out there. Leclerc now just breezed past by an Alpha Tauri, Racing Point and a McLaren.

Chris: Someone tell me exactly why Ferrari are worth their extra bonus money? Kvyat was past Leclerc on the DRS line!

Charles Leclerc did superbly to go from 13th (in effect 12th with no Sainz) to eighth, but now he's back where he started in 12th with Vettel one place further back.

Bottas: "We have one push now?"

Engineer: "We do, but we agreed not to use against each other."

Bottas: "I've never heard of that!"

Image source, Getty Images