Norris was another to drive a strong race. McLaren chose the hard tyre for the start and ran him long before his pit stop, hoping the strategy would bank him some laps in clear air in which he could run his best pace.

That happened as the other front-runners made their pit stops, leaving Norris in the lead for four laps before his own stop.

Norris rejoined in fifth place, a little over six seconds behind Russell in third.

Norris caught Russell and passed him on lap 41, three laps after Leclerc had done.

But although he cut Leclerc’s lead from nearly four seconds to just over one, he could not quite catch the Ferrari before the flag.

In hindsight, the time he lost trying to pass Lewis Hamilton early in the first stint could have been crucial.

Norris twice passed Hamilton into the last corner only to be repassed in the DRS overtaking zones on the pit straight, before learning the lesson and saving the move for into Turn One on lap 15.

McLaren’s engineers later warned Piastri about this, team principal Andrea Stella said, to advise him when he came up against Hamilton just after his first pit stop when not losing time to Verstappen was critical.

Instead, Piastri made a daring pass around the outside of the flat-out curve leading into the high-speed chicane at Turns 22 and 23.

The race lived up to its reputation for a safety car every time when Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly tangled on the first lap at Turn Four.

But there were no further interruptions as Andrea Kimi Antonelli followed Russell home in sixth place after a quiet race, ahead of Hamilton, still struggling in the Ferrari.

Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon took eighth and ninth ahead of the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar.