The 19-lap event featured three safety car periods and was characterised by the drivers opting to use soft tyres making big gains early on and the safety car restarts, before falling back as the race wore on with their rubber graining.
A three-way crash that triggered the third safety car period eliminated Sergio Perez and sealed Verstappen’s title.
At the start, Piastri held the lead off the line from pole while his fellow front row and medium tyre starter Lando Norris and Verstappen, also on the yellow-walled rubber from third, were swamped by the cars starting on the softs – Russell, Sainz and Leclerc.
The race was then neutralised by the safety car being called into action soon after Liam Lawson spun off from the back of the pack at Turn 2, where he appeared to lose the rear of his AlphaTauri solo at the long left-hander and spun off into the gravel.
When the race restarted on lap three, Piastri aced the drive back to full racing speed but lost the lead when Russell made a late dive to the inside of the Turn 6 hairpin – getting ahead as Piastri slid a touch and lost momentum exiting the corner.
Proceedings were then neutralised again by another safety car period – required because Logan Sargeant had spun off by himself running through the Turn 9 right-hand kink midway through the second sector.
The race restarted again at the start of lap seven, with the drivers on the mediums being told the cars running the softs were already seeing rubber graining up and the expectation being the event would swing back towards those on the more durable compound.
Source: Autosport