Max maintains his championship lead and finishes in 2nd place

While Max, Sergio and Pierre were all on medium at the start and outnumbered, Yuki was the only rider to use a different tire to the rest of the grid as he completed his first stint from 15th on soft tyres.

As the lights went down, Max got off to a superb start from second place to take the lead, pushing past Valtteri Bottas into Turn 1. Sergio then put pressure on Bottas at Turn 4 and a clever Sergio overtake moved him into second place, where the two Red Bulls completed the first part of the race.

Pierre finished the first lap in eighth place as Lewis Hamilton – recovering from a starting penalty – weaved his way through the field while Yuki tried to get up front as well but got into a collision with Lance Stroll in which he lost its front wing. This forced Yuki to pit early due to hard tires as the Safety Car had to clear the debris.

At the restart, Max and Sergio held Hamilton in check for a few laps, with Sergio being particularly clever when he was passed by Hamilton at Turn 1 on Lap 18, but immediately regained position before Turn 4. At the same time, Pierre made his way past Sebastian Vettel for seventh place, although Sergio dropped to third place a lap later.

Pierre was the first driver to make a planned pit stop, coming in on lap 25 due to hard tires and Max made the switch two laps later in response to Hamilton, with Red Bull Racing ensuring he retained the lead. Sergio made his first stop on lap 28 but was unlucky when two laps later some debris resulted in a Virtual Safety Car and allowed Bottas a free pit stop, meaning the Mexican dropped to fourth place.

To defend the lead, Red Bull opted for an early second stop with Max on lap 40, again fitting hard compound tires and preventing Mercedes from being undercut. Sergio made his second stop two laps later, while Yuki had made good progress to finish in the top ten before having to make his second stop on lap 39, with a ten second penalty for the stroll collision putting him out the order threw.

Pierre made his second pit stop on lap 51 and switched to hard tires to attack the Alpine riders with a stop in front of him.

In the battle for the lead, Max had to get very defensive and endure intense pressure from Hamilton for a few laps before finally being passed on lap 59 and finishing a solid second to maintain his championship lead.

Sergio made a late stop on soft tires to set the fastest lap as he finished fourth while Pierre fought his way past both Alpine riders on back-to-back laps to move up to seventh place and ensure Scuderia AlphaTauri tied on points in the Constructors’ Championship with Alpine stays.