Carlos Sainz completed the podium ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc, who popped up in Perez's race and gained several places from his mid-pack grid spot by completing a rare Suzuka one-stop strategy.
At the first start, polesitter Verstappen easily led Perez away from the line, with the action occurring far back in the pack as the medium-starting RB cars got swamped by soft-shod rivals.
When they raced into Turn 3, Ricciardo moved over on Albon – unsighted that the Williams was on his right-hand side – and the pair speared into the barriers at the start of the Esses.
The race was immediately stopped and a near 30-minute delay as the tyre wall was repaired.
In the second standing start, Verstappen again maintained his lead away from pole – this time chopping more aggressively across his team-mate's nose on the downhill run to the opening corners.
Perez managed to stay within a second for when DRS was activated on lap four of 57, but slipped back slightly until on lap six he ran wide out of Degner two and lost nearly a second.
The gap between the leaders continued widening until Perez stopped first for more mediums – the Red Bull duo having stayed on the mediums they had used at the initial start for the second attempt – on lap 15, where he trailed by nearly five seconds.
Source: Autosport