Verstappen’s victory is his 10th in a row, which gives him the outright record of consecutive F1 wins ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Alberto Ascari.
The start was delayed by nearly 20 minutes due to Yuki Tsunoda stopping with a suspected MGU-H issue, his cockpit smoking and the race reduced to 51 laps as the rest had to be re-dressed with their mechanics on the grid.
When they did finally get away, Sainz covered off Verstappen’s look to immediately seize the lead by covering the run to the first chicane, where rather than attack the lead Red Bull as Ferrari had hoped Leclerc had to defend from George Russell’s Mercedes behind.
But as he was able to hold on, the top three shot clear and Russell turned to defending against Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull.
For 14 laps Sainz was able to hold on in front of Verstappen – regularly defending the inside run to the first chicane, where on lap six the leaders nearly made contact as Verstappen stayed on the outside line and Sainz forcefully shut the door as was his want as the leader.
But on lap 15, Verstappen again got a run towards to Turn 1 and there Sainz locked up his right front, which meant his rival could got alongside on the exit and surge alongside at through the Curva Grande.
Verstappen sealed the lead at the second chicane quickly blasted to a 2.5s lead, as Sainz, his rear tyres crying enough, struggled to hang on in front of Leclerc, who had lost DRS to Verstappen a few laps before the Dutchman fought his way into the lead.
Source: Autosport