Higher tyre degradation than expected compared to when Red Bull struggled badly for car balance in practice on Friday appeared to ease Verstappen’s path, as he was also boosted by the set-up work completed at his team’s factory ahead of qualifying.
Norris did mount a ferocious late-race charge as he worked his hard tyres better than Verstappen in the second of two stints, but the world champion held on to win by 0.7s.
At the start, Norris did gain slightly on polesitter Verstappen when they reacted to the lights, but his line took him to the outside of the track’s first braking point at the Tamburello chicane where he could not get near enough to make an attack.
As Leclerc and his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz slotted in behind the leaders, Verstappen scampered clear enough to deprive Norris of DRS even when it was activated on lap two of 63.
Verstappen then just tore regular chunks from his rival to build his lead to 6.5s by lap 22 – although he did make his life harder later in the race for abusing track limits to such an extent he was formally warned by the FIA.
Norris initially dropped Leclerc in the first stint before the Ferrari closed back in, with Norris becoming the first of the leaders to pit on lap 22 to go from the mediums they had all started on to the hards, with Verstappen coming in two laps later.
Leclerc was left out until lap 25, which meant Norris eased away, as pushing early in the second stint and Sainz stopping even later meant Oscar Piastri undercut the second Ferrari for fourth – having chased Sainz closely for most of the first stint.
Verstappen started the final stint with a 5.6s lead thanks to Norris’s earlier stop, with the Dutchman then rebuilding his lead over the next phase, albeit not as rapidly as at the start.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Indeed, at this stage Leclerc chomped into what had been a three-second-plus Norris advantage post-pitstop and got to within DRS range of the McLaren by lap 43.
But an off at the Variante Alta chicane shortly afterwards sapped Leclerc’s momentum, just when Norris’s hard tyre stint was transformed and he started to quickly catch Verstappen, who complained that his rubber did not work.
Norris pushed hard – saving several wild moments at the tracks first two chicanes as the race traversed its final five laps – but he wound up just short, with Leclerc finishing 7.1s further back in third.
More to follow
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Source: Autosport