At the race start, it was Alonso who got away best from the front row and though polesitter Pérez tried to defend off the line, the Aston Martin driver took the lead into Turn 1.
However, within seconds, the race stewards revealed that Alonso was under investigation for possibly being in an incorrect starting location.
And as the field crossed the line to start the second lap the Spaniard was handed a five-second penalty to be served during his pit stop.
Further back, Verstappen also made a good start and on lap one he rose two places, passing Valtteri Bottas for P14 and then inheriting P13 as Oscar Piastri dropped back following a lap one incident.
Verstappen too, was making gains and by lap six he’d risen to P11 place after comfortably dismissing the Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.
Pérez now began to build a gap at the front and by lap 11 he manage a two-second buffer to Alonso. Verstappen was now up to ninth place, having picked off Zhou Guanyu into Turn 1.
Charles Leclerc, the other out of position starter, was also making his way up the order and by the following lap the Monegasque driver was past Pierre Gasly and into eighth place after starting 12th.
His next target was Lewis Hamilton and at the start of lap nine he used DRS to power past the Mercedes AMG man into Turn 1.
Verstappen was now hunting down Lewis Hamilton and at the start of lap 12 he eased past the slower Mercedes AMG under DRS on the pit straight to take P8 behind Esteban Ocon. Max then made light work of passing the Frenchman to steal P7.
Lance Stroll was the first of the front runners to pit, from fourth, and the Canadian took hard tyres at the end of lap 13, rejoining in 11th place. The move pushed Verstappen further up the order and on lap 15 the champion was in sixth place, just over a second behind Charles Leclerc.
The Ferrari driver’s team-mate, Carlos Sainz Jr., then made his sole pit stop, from the fourth he had inherited from Stroll, and he took on hard tyres emerging in ninth place. That pushed Verstappen to fifth behind Leclerc and as he closed on his rival, Ferrari pitted Leclerc at the end of lap 16 and came out behind Sainz Jr. in P8.
Red Bull pitted Pérez and the Mexican moved to hard tyres as Alonso pitted behind him. The Spanish driver sat out his penalty, moved to hard tyres and rejoined in second place as Verstappen also headed for the pits. He switched to hard tyres in a 2.8 second stop and was released into fourth place.
The Safety Car left the track at the end of lap 20 and as Perez held the lead from Alonso, Verstappen immediately began to put pressure on George Russell.
The Mercedes AMG driver did his best to hold off Max’s charge but on lap 24 his defence faded and Verstappen powered past the Briton into Turn 27 to take P3. The champion wasn’t done, however. Alonso was next on his hit list and at the end of the lap he closed right up to the Spanish driver and with DRS with wide open he eased past to claim P2.
Ahead, Pérez was keeping a tight grip on the lead and over the following 10 laps he traded fastest laps with Verstappen as the pair pulled away from the rest of the field. On lap 37, however, Verstappen began to report a weird noise and suggested to his race engineer that he might be suffering with another driveshaft issue.
The message came back, however, that there was no cause for concern and that he could continue. The Dutchman was wary, however, and the gap widened to 5.2 seconds. Verstappen gradually reeled his team-mate back in but then chose to settle into second.
After celebrating on the podium the Aston Martin driver was handed a 10-second penalty and slipped off the podium to fourth, with his third place going to Mercedes AMG’ George Russell.
However, following a review of the decision, Alonso was reinstated to third. Behind Russell, Hamilton took fifth place ahead of Sainz Jr. and Leclerc, while Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly finished eighth and ninth. The final point available went to Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
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