Verstappen overcame a penalty for clashing with Leclerc on the first lap and had to drive around damage picked up in another incident with Mercedes driver George Russell.
Leclerc showed Ferrari’s race pace potential was true, but was ultimately undone by the second of two safety cars losing a tyre advantage he had accrued over Verstappen and with the neutralisation helping Perez recover from picking up front wing damage in a Turn 1 melee.
At the start, polesitter Leclerc found Verstappen quickly alongside him but when they arrived at the Turn 1 hairpin the Red Bull ran the Ferrari to the edge of the track and off, each soon arguing that they had their front axles ahead at the apex per the racing rules of engagement since early 2022.
In the pack behind, Fernando Alonso spun solo on the low-grip surface and got hit by Valtteri Bottas, who in turn was struck by Perez, with Carlos Sainz understeering into Lewis Hamilton.
The ensuing debris left behind meant the virtual safety car was activated at the end of lap one of 50, with Verstappen already over a second clear anyway.
His gap was up to 1.6s when the race went back to green flag racing conditions at the start of lap three, which did not last long as Lando Norris – having made good gains in the early chaos from his lowly grid spot – crashed hard at Turn 12.
He had actually lost the rear of his McLaren solo following team-mate Oscar Piastri in the preceding corner and when things snapped suddenly sideways Norris could not catch it back up again on the slippery surface and he slammed rearwards into the Turn 11 exit wall and then shot down the track to the barriers well behind Turn 12 – nearly collecting Piastri as he did so.
The safety car was called out as Norris climbed out of his wrecked car, with the neutralisation lasting until the start of lap seven.
Verstappen was already out of DRS threat by this point as he had dropped Leclerc just before Turn 14 at the end of the long Strip straight, then braked for the right-hander, which Leclerc called “dangerous”.
At the start of lap nine when Verstappen’s lead had reached 2.0s with his pace in the early laps, the stewards determined he was at fault for the Turn 1 incident with Leclerc and handed him a five-second penalty.
Red Bull told the Dutchman to concentrate on extending his gap to above the penalty duration before his first pitstop, to which he glibly replied his team could, “give them [the stewards] my…
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