At the start Williams driver Alex Albon tangled with both Haas cars the send him and Kevin Magnussen into the wall.
Starting behind Nico Hulkenberg and Magnussen in 13th, Albon made a good launch off the line to threaten both into Turn 1, but as he pulled ahead of Hulkenberg on the outside, the German was squeezed on the inside by team-mate Magnussen and couldn't to back out of a closing gap in time.
Hulkenberg's right-front wheel tapped Albon's left-rear, sending the Anglo-Thai into a spin which collected Magnussen. Albon took the biggest hit as he and Magnussen crashed into the barriers, but both walked away unhurt.
While the safety car was immediately called out to allow marshals to recover the two stranded cars, a red flagged was called soon after because Albon’s impact had damaged the tyre barriers.
Hulkenberg made it back round but needed repairs after the incident, while Daniel Ricciardo's rear wing appeared to be damaged after his AlphaTauri was stuck by an errant tyre. The Faenza team faced a race against time to fix the Australian's car before the restart.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri was also an innocent victim of the crash, having been swiped by a spinning Magnussen.
Before the start, second-place qualifier Charles Leclerc had already been eliminated by spinning into the wall on the formation lap. On the Ferrari team radio the Monegasque driver lamented the loss of hydraulics on his SF23, which seemed to seize the engine and punt him into a spin.
Leclerc's absence from his second grid spot opened the door for Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso behind him in fourth, but both he and third-starting term-mate Lance Stroll made terrible getaways off the line.
Polesitter Max Verstappen was unchallenged to keep the lead into Turn 1, with McLaren's Lando Norris vaulting past both Astons to second from sixth on the grid.
Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton will take the standing restart from third, ahead of Alonso, Stroll and team-mate George Russell.
The restart is planned for 14:31 local time.
Piastri and Ricciardo both made the restart after repairs, but were required to start from the pitlane and a lap down.
