Following a standing restart to the race thanks to a red-flag period, Norris resumed the race on the front foot and began to catch the leading Verstappen in those opening laps after fending off Lewis Hamilton into the first corner.
Norris used the seventh lap to reel in Verstappen and had a small opportunity to pass into the first corner on the following lap, but Verstappen held the inside line through the Senna S.
Although Norris kept in touching distance and tried again into Turn 4 with DRS assistance, Verstappen covered him off once more. Norris subsequently dropped back and fell outside DRS range by the end of the lap, and never recouped that ground over the rest of the race.
According to Norris, there was the possibility to mount a second assault on Verstappen for the lead, but reckoned that it was better not to potentially compromise his race and put him at risk of the cars behind - citing Fernando Alonso's race pace as a factor.
"The opportunity to race against Max was only going to be for a few laps," Norris explained. "We weren't going to find all of a sudden the pace we needed to compete against him for a whole race.
"Fernando was behind me. We know that [Aston Martin's] race pace, especially when it's high deg, they can have very good race pace.
Source: Autosport