Verstappen leads Red Bull 1-2 as Ferrari suffers double DNF

The defending champion stretched his standings lead from nine to 34 points over Leclerc – who had started from his sixth pole position of the season – as he bagged his fourth victory in five races over team-mate Sergio Perez by 20.8s.

Verstappen’s 25th F1 triumph arrived after passing early leader Perez for the provisional lead, with Leclerc out-of-sync due to pitting in response to a VSC before his engine blew shockingly.

With Sainz also eliminated as part of an extreme attrition rate for Ferrari-powered cars, the way was paved for Verstappen to win as George Russell completed the podium.

Most of the grid assembled with brand-new medium compound C4 tyres, bar Sebastian Vettel and Kevin Magnussen (used tyres) plus Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas and the back row of Lance Stroll and Mick Schumacher who were all shod on the C3 hard rubber.

Perez was encouraged over radio to get his “elbows out into Turn 1” and duly delivered.

Leclerc’s initially getaway was sound enough but wheelspin in the second phase allowed Perez to draw alongside at Verstappen was boxed in after the best launch of the lot.

The Ferrari driver then considerably locked-up his front-left into the opening 90-degree left-hander to run well wide of the apex and ensure Perez took the lead of the race.

Verstappen was able to have a look up the inside of Leclerc but thought better of it as Sainz tried to get in on the act before dropping adrift of the leading three cars.

Perez completed the first lap with 1.3s in hand over Leclerc to immediately escape the DRS zone and extended that by half a second over the next two tours to cement first place.

With Leclerc sliding around, Verstappen was able to stick within 0.7s of his title rival.

Leclerc endured a…