But after passing Mercedes’ George Russell and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Verstappen could not catch Perez and had to settle for second. Perez started from pole, lost the lead at the start to Alonso, but controlled the grand prix from the front after re-passing the Spaniard on the fourth lap. After the restart, Verstappen made quick progress past Russell and then Alonso while Perez built as much of a lead as he could. Perez was 5.4 seconds in front by the time Verstappen got into second place and was able to hold the margin at about that same amount for the rest of the race.

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