Verstappen put himself in a position to win the race right from the start. He had secured pole position on Saturday before being demoted one place behind Mercedes’ George Russell for driving too slowly during the session.

Verstappen had his typically good start, getting into the Mercedes at the first corner and taking the lead.

As they went a little wide, Norris moved to the inside and overtook Russell, but Verstappen fended off the McLaren on the run towards the second corner.

Verstappen and Norris were in the lead together for half the race, the gap never exceeding two seconds, when Russell began to fall back from them as Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri put him under pressure.

As the leader, Verstappen always had the advantage, but the fate of the race was uncertain until it was discovered that Norris had committed an infraction by failing to drive slowly because of a yellow warning flag.

During the safety car phase, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc overtook Piastri in the pits and secured second place thanks to Norris’ penalty. Leclerc is now only eight points behind Norris in the fight for second place in the drivers’ championship.

Russell, who had fallen behind the safety car due to a slow pit stop in racing conditions, finished fourth despite a five-second penalty for a safety car infringement, ahead of a strong drive from Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who was overtaken by Russell but he managed to hold off the recovering Sainz in the final part of the race.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finished seventh, while Sauber scored its first points of the year with Zhou Guanyu in eighth, ahead of Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and the recovering Norris, who finished tenth after being put behind by his penalty had fallen.