Max Verstappen's car nearly stopped at the front of the field when the software glitch struck, with the Red Bull driver reporting complete loss of acceleration. A switch change on his steering wheel eventually solved the problem, allowing him to continue while other drivers remained stranded around the track.
Lewis Hamilton experienced similar power loss, telling Ferrari engineers his throttle was doing nothing despite pressing the pedal. The team instructed him to switch off and restart the car, which restored power after a five-second reboot procedure that proved successful.
Kimi Antonelli initially appeared unaffected by the widespread problems, becoming the first driver to recognize that Verstappen had issues. His race engineer suggested the failures were confined to Ferrari power units, though the problem actually affected multiple manufacturers when cars reached very low speeds.
Charles Leclerc's car came back to life more easily than teammate Hamilton's, while Lando Norris also lost power but recovered quickly. The software bug created a loop that prevented electrical power redeployment when cars traveled extremely slowly during safety car periods, affecting drivers across different teams and power unit suppliers.