Verstappen nailed the start to head off Leclerc’s run to the inside for the first corner and then dropped him again following an early safety car needed to clear debris from contact between cars back in the pack at Turn 1.
The early phase was Verstappen simply driving clear of Leclerc and Sainz, who was initially told he had to sit behind is team-mate and not attack – call he got frustrated with after a few laps.
The race picture was changed when Nico Hulkenberg retired in the Turn 1 runoff after losing power immediately after his lap 13 of 71 stop to change the mediums all the top 10 runners had started on bar Fernando Alonso for hards.
This caused the virtual safety car to be activated, which initially appeared to come just too late for the Ferraris to take advantage of as they were just passing the pit exit, but as it was still in place a lap later they came in when Verstappen did not.
That created an off-set between the two leaders, with Leclerc able to start to close in on Verstappen and then lead the phase approaching half-distance once the Red Bull was brought in to take hards on lap 24.
He immediately used that new rubber to erase Leclerc’s 6.4s lead in just 10 laps, with Verstappen getting by at Turn 3 on lap 35 with a move to the inside that appeared to catch the Dutchman out a touch as Leclerc stayed so wide.
From there, Verstappen pulled easily clear once again – pulling a 10s lead in the same number of laps as Ferrari considered switching its driver to a three-stopper only to be rebuffed by Leclerc.
Source: Autosport