Verstappen nailed his launch in slippery conditions following a pre-race shower at Imola to jump rival Leclerc and then he took control of the race with a run of fastest laps.
With Leclerc also ceding a place to Perez into the opening sequence of corners, Saturday sprint race winner Verstappen did not look under threat as he romped to a win by 16.5s.
Ferrari had rolled the dice with a late pitstop to put Leclerc on the fastest available tyre before Red Bull did the same, but as Leclerc attempted to reel in the leaders, he spun to sixth.
The full grid opted to start on intermediates, all running a brand-new set of rubber except for Lewis Hamilton, who instead selected a set of scrubbed grooved tyres.
Verstappen overcame his wheelspin issues that hampered his sprint getaway by launching cleanly and pulling from the left-side of the grid to cover any potential threat off the line.
But Leclerc was much slower away, allowing Perez to get the jump on the Ferrari for second and then he had to defend from Norris, who squeezed the Ferrari into fourth at Tamburello.
There, Carlos Sainz’s torrid run of form continued as he ended up beached in the gravel after tangling with Daniel Ricciardo through the second part of the chicane.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75
Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images
It appeared as though Ricciardo touched the kerb and slid wide to tag Sainz into a spin – the incident passed without investigation. Ricciardo subsequently pitted and resumed down in 18th.
Sainz was then stuck on the outside and duly retired as Mick Schumacher dropped from 10th to 17th after a half-spin, and as his rear-axle slid he tagged the sidepod of Fernando Alonso.
The safety car was eventually called at the end of the opening lap to pick up leader Verstappen, with Perez in second over Norris, Leclerc and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen.
George Russell, meanwhile, enjoyed a lightning launch to progress from 11th into sixth, as the Aston Martins of Sebastian Vettel and…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Autosport.com – Formula 1 – Stories…