Early race leader Charles Leclerc's tactic of backing up the field to help better preserve his tyres meant everyone was lapping several seconds off the pace in a long train of cars.

And for Hamilton, the lack of passing spots was a key factor in limiting the potential for excitement.

"This unfortunately, it is a really beautiful place that we come to and it is such a great track, but it is worse than Monaco almost. Was it as boring as Monaco to watch that race?" he asked reporters after the race.

"Maybe we need to change the last corner so we stop in a hairpin and we have a tight hairpin to go around.

"The [current] last corner, you cannot follow and it is a sequence of five quite fast corners that come up after where you never get close. That will make it even more special this track maybe."

Hamilton was not the only driver annoyed by what was going on at the front, with Lando Norris expressing his annoyance about the early stages.

"We were going so slow," he told Sky. "Everyone is going so slow, we are driving 3-4 seconds a lap off [than] just like a normal pace, not even a pushing pace. It was fairly relaxed in a way.

"But it was annoying, because I know all the guys behind me could keep up. And we wanted to create a bit of a buffer to the guys behind, which I couldn't do.

"It was kind of nice, because I am not as tired as I could have been. But it's not racing. You know, we just sitting there doing nothing. It's just boring, doesn't look good for anyone."

Hamilton said afterwards that he did not understand why race leader Leclerc drove so slowly for so long at the start.

"I don't really know why he drove as slow as he did. You could say that he probably studied my race last year or what I did last year when I drove off the pace then picked up the pace and made the gap. But he never made the gap. He just kept everyone bunched up."