A long race for fans, but an afternoon of action for the Mercedes F1 team as both drivers improve on their qualifying position.
George Russell started 6th after an average Saturday for the team was cut short by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, who hit the barriers near the end of the session.
Lewis Hamilton faired worse, staying in Q2 with a 13th on the grid.
Russell started on the medium tyre and Hamilton on the hard tyre, similar to the race winner, Max Verstappen.
Russell found himself in the midst of battles after his pitstop on lap 17 and then overtook Sainz on lap 38 to take P4.
His teammate, meanwhile, bided his time on the hard tyre, which seemed extremely fast for other drivers but not for him. He let Russell overtake him to catch the drivers ahead.
A new set of mediums on lap 37 allowed Lewis to carve out a P6 after re-joining in P13.
Overall, the team are happy with the points and look forward to the upgrades planned for next week in Imola.
The team stay third in the constructors' championship with 96 points, 6 behind Aston Martin.
Hamilton: 'This is what I live for'
After a consistent top 10 finish start to the season (apart from one DNF from George), Lewis finds himself exactly where the team expected themselves to be.
But because of his comeback near the end of the race, he felt elated.
He said: "I really enjoy battling with all the different cars and it was really great at the end to catch the Alpine and overtake the Ferrari."
When compared to last weekend, he noted his fall from grace in the sprint race, where he finished seventh after starting sixth.
"It is mega. In the Sprint race at the last race I was going backwards and it is demoralising when you are going backwards, it is really tough.
"It was great to have pace and see the cars ahead and see the progress. I had a couple of great overtakes as well and that is what I live for.
"It felt great to see the Ferrari up ahead and be catching it bit by bit."
He also spoke about his poor qualifying form:
"If we had qualified where I probably should have qualified I would have had a much easier, smoother day but I prefer days like this where there is a bit of adversity and you have to deliver."
Russell: 'I am feeling pumped'
Russell had a better weekend than Hamilton, finishing above his teammate in almost every session.
He was also let through by his teammate as they were on different strategies, to which he said:
"Thanks to Lewis for letting me by too and enabling me to get on with my race as we were in different battles today. We’ve got a really good relationship and we only want what is best for the Team. That’s what we are working towards."
Straight after the race, he said:
"I am feeling pumped, to be honest, because it has been a while since we had a good race like that where we made overtakes stick," Russell said.
"The pace, relatively speaking, was strong and I felt good in the car, so for sure it was a satisfying one.
"I would have liked to have been three positions higher, but we know the position we are as a team right now and P4 was the maximum today.
"It was a good day at the office and we will sit down with everybody tomorrow to see how we can move from here."
Hopefully, with new upgrades in Imola, the team will be able to fight three positions higher, as Toto Wolff said:
“[I am hoping] we can go more to a stable platform, and then we should see where the baseline is and what we can do from there.”