The reigning world champion crossed the line with a 22.4s gap over Perez to clinch his eighth successive F1 win, going back to his Suzuka win last year.

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Verstappen faced little in the way of competition, only having to contend with a brief play for the lead from Charles Leclerc into the first corner as the Ferrari driver attempted to make a pass around the outside. But the Red Bull driver held the racing line and kept Leclerc at arm’s length.

Although Leclerc may have hoped for some early assistance from the revised DRS regulations, which allows the overtaking aid to be activated from the second lap, Verstappen had already galloped to a one-second advantage to ensure there were no challenges on the next lap.

Early battles for second gave Verstappen more breathing space and, after George Russell had mounted a pass on Leclerc, the Mercedes was not able to make further inroads and the Dutchman extended his lead to three seconds by the end of lap four.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB20, Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24, George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24, the rest of the field at the start

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

It was a typical Verstappen drive, with relentless consistency and excellent tire management as Red Bull arguably took a less conservative strategy relative to the other runners; Having saved a set of softs from earlier in the weekend, Verstappen and Perez both ran to a soft-hard-soft two-stopper while the others elected to stick to a soft-hard-hard strategy.

Verstappen managed to take his opening stint as far as the end of lap 17 as he became the last driver to pit, but was far enough ahead of Perez – who had since passed Russell for second on lap 14 with an up-and-under overtake into Turn 4 – to maintain a five-second lead.

This grew as Perez faced challenges from Russell and Carlos Sainz behind him, ensuring that Verstappen could focus on maintaining a consistent pace at the head of the field.

He made his final stop on lap 37, switching from his sole set of hard tires back to the softs, which he was able to press into service for a statement 1m32.608s lap before easing back into a strong race pace.

Perez had to spend the race’s second half keeping Sainz at bay, as the Spaniard provided the quicker of the Ferrari drivers throughout the course of the race.

Sainz had earlier reeled off impressive overtakes on team-mate Leclerc and Russell to provisionally occupy a podium position and, although he sometimes had Perez within two seconds, he was unable to make any further inroads towards the Mexican.

Told on the 44th lap that his hard tires should start to perform more strongly compared to Perez’s softs, Sainz had to settle for third amid an impressive drive; his inch-perfect racecraft had offered at least some action in the battle for third place.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF-24 Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Leclerc struggled early on in the race with a series of front lock-ups, notably struggling at Turn 10 as he complained of his car pulling to the right under braking. His later switch to the hard tires seemed to quell some of those issues, and he managed to dispatch Russell on lap 46 with a move into Turn 11 – Russell had echoed Leclerc’s earlier work with an off in the previous corner.

Russell’s impressive start to the race could not be carried forward, having had to nurse a suspected power unit issue, which left him having to opt for a lift-and-coast approach through the race, but the Briton still beat his countryman Lando Norris into sixth.

Lewis Hamilton could not enjoy the same heroics as Russell early on, as he was largely stuck in lock-step behind Fernando Alonso in the early stages, while fighting the discomfort of a broken seat, but was able to clear Alonso and jump Oscar Piastri in the final round of stops to finish seventh.

Piastri ensured McLaren had both cars in the top eight, while Alonso slipped backwards throughout the race to finish ninth. Lance Stroll recovered from Nico Hulkenberg’s rear-end contact into the first corner to finish 10th thanks to canny strategy from Aston Martin, which brought him back into the race.

Stroll had been nudged into a spin by Hulkenberg among the Turn 1 contact, which also caught Valtteri Bottas off-guard, but this was the only major moment of note in an incident-free race.

Zhou Guanyu was in with a shout of the final point, having made his first stop early, but could not stop the Astons from making their way through, and thus the Chinese driver had to be content with 11th.

Improved race pace ensured that Kevin Magnussen could hold 12th from the chasing R.B. duo, despite team orders between the Italian squad’s drivers; Yuki Tsunoda was asked to move over for Daniel Ricciardomuch to the Japanese driver’s chagrin, but Ricciardo could not make any further gains on the Dane.

Alex Albon had to coax an overheating car into 15th, ahead of the recovering (and three-stopping) Hulkenberg, while Alpine duo Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly were cemented towards the bottom in 17th and 18th. A damaged Bottas beat Logan Sargeant to 20th, as the American appeared to suffer from a braking issue that forced an off-track excursion at Turn 4 on lap 10.