The win gives Verstappen his 50th F1 career victory in a race where he struggled with a brake problems and Ferrari’s challenge disappeared early.
At the start, Norris got a better start than Ferrari’s polesitter Charles Leclerc and was quickly alongside the Ferrari before heading to the Turn 1 apex to make certain of the lead.
Behind, Hamilton tried to defend against Carlos Sainz but was jumped when the Spaniard followed Norris through the inside line of the uphill hairpin and Hamilton instead moved wider and saw off Verstappen’s run even further to the right.
The leaders plunged through the track’s sector one esses complex with Norris shooting clear of Leclerc, with Sainz, Hamilton and Verstappen trailing.
Norris’s lead was 1.7s at the end of lap one of 56, which he tripled over the early laps – during which Hamilton battled by both Ferrari’s with DRS runs to Turn 12 at the end of the long back straight on tours four and six, with Verstappen doing likewise to Sainz soon after.
Even as he passed Leclerc, Hamilton was lapping quicker than Norris and he set about trying to close down the McLaren’s three-second advantage as the leaders carefully paced the medium tyres they had all started on.
But over the next phase of the race, Norris and Hamilton were matched in laptimes in the low 1m42s, while Verstappen remained behind Leclerc even with DRS – the Ferrari dropping back from Hamilton by a few tenths per lap.
Source: Autosport