Piastri took the lead following his pit stop after Verstappen was forced to serve a five-second penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage.

That came immediately off the start as the Dutchman left the road in a desperate attempt to retain the race lead ahead of the fast-starting McLaren.

He did so by cutting over the inside of the Turn 1 apex, which officials deemed was unfair and penalised the Red Bull driver.

Piastri ended up taking the flag from Verstappen by 2.6s with Charles Leclerc holding off a hard-charging Lando Norris.

Jack Doohan was 17th after a two-stop strategy while a 10-second penalty saw Liam Lawson drop one place after the flag to finish 12th.

At the race start, Piastri got a good jump, drawing alongside Verstappen in the run to the first corner.

With the inside line, Piastri had the upper hand only for Verstappen to jump across the inside of the apex at Turn 1 to retain the lead.

When the pack got to Turn 4, Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly found themselves in trouble.

Gasly reached the wall to become the first retirement of the race while Tsunoda was able to get the Red Bull going again in an incident that drew an early Safety Car.

The Japanese driver recovered his car to the pits, where he switched the car off with damage to the rear having backed into the barrier.

The incident occurred after Tsunoda and Gasly touched wheels at Turn 4, the Red Bull on the inside appearing to understeer into the Alpine on his right to send the pair off the road.

With the field under the control of the Safety Car, the stewards confirmed they were investigating the Turn 1 clash between Piastri and Verstappen.

That resulted in a five-second time penalty for the Dutchman, a penalty announced as he led the field back to the green flag at the end of Lap 3.

He jumped early, catching Piastri napping, forcing the Australian to go defensive against George Russell and Charles Leclerc.

Though they fanned out three wide on entry to the first corner, all fell back in line as they were, the order Verstappen from Piastri, Russell, Leclerc, Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris, Alex Albon, and Fernando Alonso in the top 10.

Having dropped two places to eighth on the opening lap, Norris moved by Sainz into Turn 1 as they began Lap 7, the Spaniard offering no defence.

The McLaren driver then chased down Lewis Hamilton, passing the Ferrari at the end of Lap 12, only for Hamilton to immediately fight back into Turn 1 to regain the place.

It happened again next time around, Norris passing into the final corner only to lose the spot in the drag race down to the first corner.

Hamilton was gaming the system, giving up the place such that he was behind at the DRS detection point on corner exit, using that to ease back ahead.

At the third time of asking, Norris managed to remain behind the Ferrari into the final corner and breezed by courtesy of DRS as they began Lap 15.

By that point, Verstappen had eased out to a crucial five-second advantage over Russell in third.

It was a key margin as it afforded him a buffer for his additional stationary time at the pit stop.

Piastri remained within striking distance in second, seemingly managing his pace as he remained two seconds back from the race leader.

The field had not yet opened up to allow the leaders to drop into following their stop.

McLaren spotted its opportunity and pulled the trigger at the end of Lap 19, a 3.4s stop as he swapped onto the hard compound rubber.

He fed out into sixth place, around two seconds back from Hamilton with a similar margin to Sainz behind.

That coincided with Verstappen being given the instruction to push hard, boxing at the end of Lap 21.

On track, Piastri was unwilling to get stuck behind Hamilton, going around the outside of the Ferrari on approach to the high-speed Turn 21 in an aggressive, opportunistic overtake.

Crucially, he remained ahead of the Ferrari in the DRS zone on the front straight, the McLaren driver moving into the effective race lead as Verstappen trundled out of the pit lane.

Leclerc was in the lead from Norris, the latter having started on the hard tyres and both yet to stop.

Verstappen quickly caught Hamilton and shadowed the Ferrari for much of Lap 23 before driving around the outside at the final corner.

There was no fightback from the seven-time champion as there had been with Norris as he instead headed into the pits.

That left Verstappen a clear net-second to Piastri, the pair separated by 3.8s, though running third and fourth on the road.

On the hard tyres, Piastri pushed on in the opening laps of his second stint to create a four-second gap over Verstappen.

Ahead, Leclerc was extending his medium tyre stint, the Ferrari driver looking to create a tyre delta given he was poised to drop into the pack when he did stop.

Norris was in a similar boat, but with greater strategic freedom; he could move on to the medium tyres or continue to extend and switch to a new set of softs in the final laps.

The race leader finally boxed after 29 laps in a slick two-second stop that fed him out into a net fifth place, between the two Mercedes drivers.

With the dirty air off the back of Norris’ car beginning to impact Piastri, McLaren called in the championship leader at the end of Lap 34.

Taking a set of medium tyres, he rejoined in fifth place, 5.5s behind Leclerc in fourth, who was especially rapid on the hard compound tyres.

Norris’ stop washed the front of the race, with Piastri a comfortable 4.5s ahead of Verstappen with Russell third from Leclerc, Norris, Antonelli, Hamilton, Sainz, Albon, and Isack Hadjar.

Using his tyre advantage, Leclerc used DRS to ease by Russell into third place, seven seconds behind Verstappen ahead.

Norris soon caught Russell, using DRS down the front straight to take fourth as they started Lap 41.

It came as officials noted his exit from the pit lane amid concerns he crossed the pit exit line.

After a nervy wait, officials decided there was no further investigation necessary.

The fresh tyres afforded him the opportunity to chase down Leclerc ahead, the pair split by just 1.3s as they began the penultimate lap.

That’s where his charge stalled out, unable to make further inroads to take the flag in fourth.

His teammate won the race, heading Verstappen by just over two seconds after 50 laps of racing.

Leclerc was third from Norris, Russell, Antonelli, Hamilton, Sainz, Albon, and Hadjar to round out the top 10.

The result moved Piastri into the lead of the drivers’ championship, the first time an Australian had led the standings since Mark Webber in 2010.