Although the hope behind the new rule was that it would add spice to the race, the spice was all theoretical as teams were on tenterhooks waiting for incidents that would require quick decisions.
But although Alpine’s Pierre Gasly crashed into the back of Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull early on and broke his suspension and Fernando Alonso retired his Aston Martin with an engine failure, there was not a safety car that led to a strategy scramble.
At the first pit stops, the only change in order saw Hamilton jump ahead of Alonso, who then dropped back from the Ferrari, managing his engine problem before retirement.
Alonso, still on zero points, has now had his equal-worst start to a season ever, matched only by McLaren-Honda’s dire 2015.
Behind Hamilton, Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar finished sixth, making two pit stops within a few laps of each other early in the race to end up on hard tyres and run to the end.
Haas driver Esteban Ocon was seventh, ahead of the second Racing Bull of Liam Lawson and the Williams of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz.
Albon annoyed his good friend George Russell as he managed the traffic to manipulate the race to ensure he and Sainz could pit and both finish in the points.
Russell, complaining Albon was driving erratically, eventually cut the chicane to take the position and refused to give it back, saying he would “take the penalty”.
Russell was expecting a five-second penalty, but in fact he was given a drive-through, and he finished 11th, his race already ruined by the electrical problem in qualifying that left him 14th on the grid.