Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri started on the soft compound tyre with both cars, and Max made a brilliant start from second to dive down the inside of Lewis Hamilton to take the lead into the first corner with a late move on the brakes. Sergio also made a good start to gain two positions on the opening lap, rising from eighth to run sixth.

Pierre was instantly on the back foot after a mistake on the grid saw him overshoot his starting spot and pick up a five-second time penalty, but there was worse to come for AlphaTauri as Yuki lost fuel pressure just seven laps into the race, stopping at Turn 10 and bringing out the Safety Car. Max managed to hold Hamilton at bay after the restart and kept the Mercedes behind him during the first part of the race, looking to extend that first stint as long as possible to avoid making a pit stop and emerging into traffic.

Pierre was first of the remaining three cars to stop, coming into the pits on lap 18 and serving his time penalty before fitting a set of mediums tyres. Max was next to follow suit on lap 24, with a slow left rear tyre change slightly hampering him, but he retained the lead as Hamilton didn’t stop for another four laps - the Mercedes changing to mediums one lap after Sergio had also stopped to do the same.

The status quo remained for a while, with Max holding off Hamilton, while Sergio was stuck behind Daniel Ricciardo down in sixth place. Then as the top two were running closely together, Mercedes opted for a two-stop strategy and Max was left trying to get to the end without another stop on old medium tyres as Hamilton set about erasing a 23-second deficit.

Sergio had been stuck behind Ricciardo for much of the race but finally got past the McLaren with a brilliant move around the outside of Turn 1 on lap 46, securing fifth but by now Charles Leclerc was too far ahead to catch. Two laps after Sergio’s pass, Pierre made a second pit stop for soft tyres and and emerged outside the points but set about catching the cars ahead and put in some excellent lap times.

With seven laps remaining, Hamilton caught and passed Max on fresher tyres, so Red Bull then made another stop to fit a set of softs and Max comfortably emerged in second before securing the extra point for the fastest lap.

Sergio came home fifth to add another 10 points to his tally, while Pierre delivered some thrilling entertainment in the closing laps. On lap 60 he pulled a stunning move on Kimi Raikkonen and then cleared Fernando Alonso a lap later to get within point-scoring range, dispatching Lance Stroll soon afterwards to finish tenth.