Mercedes’ George Russell led from pole but came under attack from Charles Leclerc from one-third distance. Leclerc grabbed the lead with a fantastic outbraking move around the outside of Turn 1.
But Leclerc’s chances of victory were dealt a fatal blow when Ferrari opted for him to run the slower hard tyres, despite evidence of the Alpines struggling badly on them.
On the flipside, title rival Verstappen, who changed his engine after a qualifying disaster, charged his way to the front – despite a spin soon after passing Leclerc.
Lewis Hamilton put on a late-race charge to grab second for Mercedes, ahead of Russell.
Russell held his pole advantage on the run to Turn 1, where Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz attacked him around the outside but slotted into second. The second Mercedes of Hamilton made a great start to vault past both Alpines – who were too busy battling each other – to run fifth, before he ran wide on the exit of Turn 1 and rejoined behind McLaren’s Lando Norris.
A virtual safety car interrupted the race to clear the track from debris at Turn 2, and it resumed on Lap 3 with Russell pulling out a handy 2.6s lead over Sainz.
From his 10th-place start, Verstappen worked his way past the Alpines by Lap 7, passing Fernando Alonso after he suffered a big moment at Turn 3 and then outbraking Esteban Ocon at Turn 1 to run sixth. Behind him, teammate Sergio Perez did likewise.
Hamilton and Verstappen used DRS to jump ahead of Norris on Lap 12, and Perez took sixth from Norris a lap later.
Russell’s soft tyres began to struggle against the Ferraris’ mediums by Lap 15, and he pitted two laps later (suffering a sticky right-front wheel change) just as Sainz was about to get into DRS range. Verstappen too stopped at this point to try and undercut past Hamilton.
Sainz pitted a lap later and also suffered a slow 3.7s stop, and he rejoined well behind Russell and, crucially, took a lap to get past a longer-running Ocon. Sainz was now 3s behind the Mercedes.
Leclerc stayed out longest of the leaders, pitting on Lap 22 and rejoining ahead of Sainz in second, 2.7s behind Russell. Leclerc closed the gap on new rubber, getting into Russell’s DRS range on Lap 27, and began attacking a lap later – drawing alongside at Turn 3 but Russell ran him wide.
Leclerc grabbed the lead with a brilliant lunge around the outside of Russell at Turn 1 on Lap 31 and pulled away as Sainz caught Russell – with Verstappen cruising up to their battle too.
Verstappen pitted again on Lap 39 to try and undercut Russell and Sainz, sparking Mercedes to respond. Leader Leclerc also stopped, taking the hard tyre for the planned final stint as it was too early to take softs.
Verstappen got ahead of Russell in the pitstop cycle, while Sainz stayed out in the lead on mediums. Leclerc had no pace on the hard tyre, allowing Verstappen to zoom past him into Turn 1.
But further around the lap Verstappen spun, allowing Leclerc back ahead of him and putting Russell back into the mix. The recovering Verstappen repassed sitting duck Leclerc on Lap 45, who then slipped back into a fight for second with Russell.
Sainz pitted from the lead, switching to softs, but a left-rear problem meant a stop of 4.7s. Hamilton now led for a handful of laps, pitting on Lap 53 for softs, putting Verstappen back in front as Russell got past Leclerc for second on Lap 55.
Leclerc pitted again, to get rid of his unloved hard tyres, dropping him to sixth for a lonely run to the flag on softs.
Hamilton was really on a charge, passing Sainz for third on Lap 63 and Russell two laps later. But he was 10s behind Verstappen, who remained out of reach.
A rain shower on the last lap didn’t impact the result, with Verstappen winning from Hamilton, Russell, Sainz, Perez and Leclerc.
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