Russell was peerless throughout while Max Verstappen finished fifth, one place ahead of Lando Norris, to secure his fourth drivers’ championship.

Carlos Sainz rounded out the podium with Charles Leclerc fourth in the other Ferrari, while Oscar Piastri finished seventh.

At the race start, Russell made the most of his pole position to head the pack while Leclerc swooped under Pierre Gasly and Sainz to slot into second.

It was a wild opening lap with overtaking up and down the pack, headed by Russell, Leclerc, Sainz, Gasly, Verstappen, Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, and Piastri in the top eight.

A sluggish start for Kevin Magnussen saw the Haas driver vulnerable to Liam Lawson at Turn 12, the RB driver taking no prisoners to seize the position.

Nico Hulkenberg in the other Haas was going the other way, passing Piastri on Lap 2 to move into eighth place.

On Lap 4, Russell had to go defensive against Leclerc at Turn 14, holding on to the race lead, though only narrowly.

The pair ran side by side through the final turn with the Mercedes holding the inside line and with it the place.

As that was happening, Verstappen put a move on Gasly, using DRS to ease by the Alpine into Turn 14.

Piastri soon found himself under attack from Hamilton, the Australian defending down the back straight to hold his place.

However, he was racing under a cloud as officials investigated a potential false start for the McLaren driver.

Having failed in his efforts attacking Russell, Leclerc quickly fell back and slipped behind Sainz and, soon after, Verstappen as he fell to fourth.

Ferrari called him in after nine laps, swapping him onto a set of hard tyres. Norris was also called in feeding out in 16th and 17th respectively.

As McLaren serviced Norris, officials handed Piastri a five-second penalty for being out of his grid box at the race start.

After 10 laps, Sainz boxed though not before Verstappen had moved by the Spaniard and into second.

Verstappen was in a lap later, feeding out into the middle of a battle between Valtteri Bottas and Franco Colapinto.

Crucially, however, he was ahead of both Ferraris and Norris.

Russell pitted from the lead after 12 laps, handing the lead to Hamilton before emerging in a comfortable second on the road.

Gasly’s race came to an early end with an apparent power unit failure in the Alpine.

A plume of smoke escaped the Renault as he rounded Turn 14, the Frenchman rolling the car into the pit lane with 15 laps on the board.

Hamilton’s march forward continued, quickly passing Norris and Perez to move up to fifth after 17 laps.

Following the opening round of stops, Russell held a comfortable 10s advantage over Verstappen with Sainz third from Leclerc and Hamilton.

The race was largely static then until the second round of stops, which begun just after the halfway point.

A bizarre sequence saw Ferrari swap the order of Sainz, who was struggling on his tyres, and Leclerc.

At the end of Lap 27, Sainz had dived to the lane only to turn back out of the pit exit and rejoin the race track.

He’d been arguing with the pit wall to box him, only for the crew to not be ready when they finally made the call.

It forced Sainz to complete another lap before he finally got new tyres, rejoining in sixth on Lap 30.

Verstappen slipped behind Hamilton on Lap 31, the Mercedes driver eased by down the long back straight, setting fastest lap as he did so.

It left him second on the road behind Russell, who stopped on Lap 32 after the second round of stops.

Hamilton was charging, taking a second out of his team-mate on Lap 35 to reduce the deficit to 9.4s.

Sergio Perez showed some fight when he took advantage of the scrap between Lawson and Magnussen.

Distracted by their own battle into Turn 14, Perez sent it up the inside to pass the pair of them on Lap 38.

With 10 laps remaining, Hamilton had closed to just seven seconds of the race lead.

He was pulling clear from Verstappen too, who was struggling for grip who was in fact falling into the clutches of the two Ferraris behind.

Norris ran sixth, some 14s further back, meaning Verstappen did not need to fight Sainz and Leclerc.

He duly offered no resistance at Turn 14 on Lap 42 as Sainz took third, though the Red Bull driver was less willing to allow Leclerc through so easily when he attacked into Turn 1.

Verstappen managed to remaining within DRS range of Sainz, a useful defence against the Ferrari in his wheeltracks.

That lasted only until Lap 46 when Verstappen before Leclerc pounced down the long back straight.

Out front, Russell had stabilised the gap to Hamilton; the seven-time champ continued to close but not quickly enough to challenge his team-mate before the chequered flag.

With two laps remaining, and Ferrari in a strong position to score constructors’ championship points, McLaren pitted Norris.

Sitting fifth, ahead of team-mate Piastri and well clear of Nico Hulkenberg in eighth, it was a net zero cost to the team, with the potential bonus of an additional point in the teams’ competition.

It paid off and earned the team an extra point at no extra cost.

However, it marked the end of Norris’ championship hopes as Verstappen crossed the line ahead of him.

It was a stunning performance from Mercedes, and Russell specifically while a strong result for Ferrari has closed the constructors’ championship to just 24 points to McLaren.