Verstappen beat his team-mate Sergio Perez, who incurred a penalty during the pitstops that didn’t impact the finishing order, and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Polesitter Verstappen led the charge to Turn 1, while Perez briefly grabbed nosed ahead of Leclerc for second but had to concede the spot to the Ferrari driver.
Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) just held on to fourth, ahead of the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris – whose car leapt forward on the start line just before the red lights went out – and the Mercedes pairing of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Piastri passed Alonso for fourth at Turn 1 at the start of lap two, as Ferrari’s substitute driver Oliver Bearman (who started on soft tyres) banged wheels with Yuki Tsunoda’s RB over tenth place.
Perez snatched second from Leclerc at the start of lap four to make it a Red Bull 1-2, with Verstappen already 2.4s up the road.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll plunged into the barriers at Turn 22 on lap seven, having clipped the apex wall of the previous corner at 140mph, causing a safety car and sent the majority of the field into the pits.
Source: Autosport