On the again of scoring Pink Bull’s one hundredth pole place on Saturday, Verstappen was by no means threatened all through the primary race in Shanghai since 2019 and effortlessly overcame two security automobile restarts within the center interval of the race.
After main the sector away with none actual menace from behind, Verstappen unearthed a 1.6-second hole on the finish of the primary lap over the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, who had opened his race with a luxurious transfer across the outdoors of Perez into the primary nook.
The standard Verstappen break-build that modern F1 followers have come to anticipate ended up being eradicated by a security automobile on lap 20 of 56, as Valtteri Bottas’ Sauber got here to a halt at Flip 11 with an engine drawback – which prompted an eventual digital security automobile previous to the emergence of the Mercedes-AMG GT.
On the restart, a punt on Yuki Tsunoda from Kevin Magnussen put the Japanese driver out, inflicting one other security automobile interval to stunt the progress that Verstappen was in a position to make.
Tasked with main the sector away on each restarts, Verstappen opened the throttle on the exit of Flip 14 to carry his place and, when the second security automobile interval got here to an finish on lap 32, he resumed his progress on the entrance.
He was now main from Norris, who took his sole cease of the race below the digital security automobile, and the choice from Pink Bull to pit each Verstappen and Perez below the complete security automobile a couple of laps later ensured that the Briton cycled out in second.
Initially conserving Verstappen in his sights, Norris couldn’t keep the identical degree of tempo because the lead Pink Bull and as a substitute targeted on preserving the runner-up spot over Perez – who additionally dropped behind Charles Leclerc after his pitstop.
As such, Verstappen maintained his degree of tempo and crossed the road with 13.7s in hand over Norris.
The McLaren driver put collectively an expertly managed second stint regardless of his crew’s reservations about its tempo in China, whereas Perez couldn’t made any actual inroads; on the flag, the hole between the opposite podium finishers stood at 5.3s.