The victory gives Verstappen a new record for most F1 wins in a single season – this his 16th 2023 triumph after he scored 15 last year.
At the start, Verstappen shot off the line as the two Ferraris ahead rather stuttered away – the Dutchman carving between Leclerc and Sainz to easily claim the inside line for Turn 1.
There, Perez suddenly arrived on the far left of Verstappen and Leclerc having got an even better getaway than his team-mate and then gained from the slipstream coming off the other RB19 and then Leclerc’s Ferrari.
Perez’s run was so good his wheels were the furthest ahead when the trio reached the turn-in point for the first corner, but with Verstappen swinging slightly back left just seconds before this, Leclerc got pinched between the two Red Bull cars.
Contact was inevitable, which pitched Perez off and soon into retirement with major sidepod damage in the pits, while Leclerc sustained a broken front wing endplate.
He cut the remaining opening corners, but Verstappen was swiftly back ahead and blasting to a lead of 1.5 seconds at the end of lap one of 71.
Leclerc’s damaged endplate did not earn him a black-and-orange flag warning as per the FIA’s policy from late 2022 that it is up to teams to determine if their cars are unsafe, which Ferrari did not initially – although the damaged endplate fell off at Turn 1 at the start of lap four.
Source: Autosport