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Stroll clouted the rear of Ricciardo’s RB just before a mid-race Safety Car restart, lifting the rear of the Australian’s RB.
To that point, it had been a strong performance from Ricciardo, though he was strategically compromised by the Safety Car for Valtteri Bottas, whose Sauber stopped with an engine failure.
Verstappen dominated the race with Lando Norris a superb second for McLaren, with Sergio Perez rounding out the podium.
Oscar Piastri was caught in the Stroll-Ricciardo clash, picking up damage as Ricciardo was pushed into his McLaren, damaging the diffuser as he came home eighth.
At the race start, Verstappen swept across in front of his team-mate into the opening corner but a wider line from Fernando Alonso saw the Aston Martin steal second place from Perez.
Norris held fourth from Piastri, George Russell and the two Ferraris as they exited Turn 3.
Yuki Tsunoda had a strong start to sit 15th at the end of the opening lap, one place back Ricciardo in the other RB, who’d fallen from 12th on the grid.
Verstappen was well over a second clear of Alonso at the end of the opening tour, the Spaniard being harried by Perez.
The championship leader’s advantage extended to 2.5s by the end of the second lap.
In fifth, Piastri had Russell for company. The Mercedes driver showed the nose at the Turn 14 hairpin at the end of Lap 3 but the McLaren driver was unmoved.
Perez finally found a way beyond Alonso on Lap 5, diving up the inside at Turn 6 as the Aston Martin driver offered no resistance.
Alonso quickly fell back, with Norris quickly closing within DRS range.
Piastri was 2.6s further back, the Australian at the head of a DRS train that included Russell, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
At the end of Lap 7, Norris made a move on Alonso to take third at Turn 14, pausing on the apex to stop the two-time world champion from switching back to the inside line on exit.
Russell was unable to attack Piastri and soon had to defend from Leclerc at Turn 14 on Lap 8. The Ferrari driver couldn’t make a move stick there but audaciously swept around the outside of the Mercedes into Turn 1 to take the place.
At the end of Lap 9, the opening round of stops began.
Hamilton was an early stopper, boxing on Lap 10, a lap after Sauber started the sequence a lap earlier.
Tsunoda also stopped, his exit delayed by Guanyu Zhou’s entry, the Japanese driver having a set of medium rubber bolted onto his car.
After losing a spot to Leclerc, Russell was soon having to defend from Sainz.
Ahead, Leclerc had steamed his way up to Piastri and eased by into the braking zone at Turn 14 at the end of Lap 11.
That placed the Ferrari behind Alonso’s Aston Martin, who immediately pitted and rejoined from 10th, behind Russell.
Race leader Verstappen headed to the lane on Lap 14, Perez following his team-mate in as Red Bull Racing turned both around in quick order.Red Bull Racing had opted for the hard compound for both its drivers.
Verstappen emerged ahead of Sainz in fourth on track, Perez behind the Ferrari in sixth.
Ricciardo pitted after 14 laps, the Australian dropping to 18th as he rejoined with a second set of medium rubber fitted.
Piastri boxed from third after 16 laps having dropped well back in the latter stages of the opening stint.
Next in was Sainz, who had just lost a spot to Perez, Ferrari swapping the Spaniard onto the white-walled hard tyres.
Leclerc in the sister car was extending his opening stint with a view to swapping to a one-stop race. McLaren left Norris out to cover off the threat posed by the Monegasque.
The Brit was being quickly reeled in by Verstappen, who was effectively a pit stop ahead and had fresher tyres. Norris offered no defence when the Dutchman finally caught him to reclaim the lead at Turn 14 on Lap 19.
Further back, with fresher tyres, Ricciardo had caught Tsunoda and passed his team-mate at the end of Lap 19 to move back up to 14th.
The yellow flags came out on Lap 21 when Bottas rolled to a halt, the Finn reporting a Ferrari engine failure in the back of the Sauber.
He pulled off into the runoff at Turn 11 with the Virtual Safety Car deployed to cover the car’s retrieval.
Ferrari took the opportunity to pit Leclerc while McLaren did not do the same with Norris, saving Leclerc an effective nine seconds in the process.
Stroll and Hamilton also pitted, while Norris was able to take to the lane next time around as the Sauber took time to clear.
The McLaren driver fed out in third, behind the two Red Bull Racing entries and ahead of Alonso in fourth.
Leclerc was fifth from Russell, then Piastri, Sainz, Nico Hulkenberg, and Esteban Ocon rounding out the top 10. Ricciardo was just outside the points in 11th.
On Lap 24, the full Safety Car was deployed as Bottas’ Sauber remained stuck in gear.
That forced Red Bull Racing to box both its drivers, hard tyres going on for both, while Aston Martin went for softs with Alonso. Russell, Ocon, Tsunoda, Alex Albon, and Zhou also took to the lane.
McLaren pitted Piastri at the end of Lap 25, with the field chasing to the back of the Safety Car line, taking on a new set of hard tyres to rejoin eighth.
Behind the Safety Car, the order was Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc, Perez, Sainz, Alonso, Russell, Piastri, Ricciardo, and Stroll.
Ricciardo was out of position, having run two sets of medium tyres and needing to swap to another compound after not stopping under the Safety Car.
That was withdrawn at the end of Lap 26, releasing the field with 30 laps remaining.
It was a messy restart, Stroll clouting the rear of Ricciardo at the Turn 14 as the field accelerated back to the restart.
It lifted the rear of the Australian’s car, pushing the RB into the Piastri ahead.
The other RB came undone when Magnussen torpedoed Tsunoda at Turn 6, tagging the right-rear as the Haas driver damaged his front wing in the process.
Tsunoda found himself with damage to the rear of his RB, an incident which saw the Safety Car deployed once more.
After his clash with Ricciardo, Stroll got back to the pits and had his car repaired, dropping to last as a result. Ricciardo continued, running ninth behind Piastri but reported floor damage on his car.
Racing resumed at the end of Lap 31, Verstappen jumping early to lead the field back to the green flag.
It was a more straightforward affair this time around, though Ricciardo quickly dropped behind Hulkenberg and Hamilton.
He lost another place at the end of the lap when Esteban Ocon slid underneath the RB at Turn 16, Albon then picking him off at Turn 2 as they started Lap 33.
Ricciardo pitted at the end of the lap, RB retiring the car with extensive damage courtesy of Stroll’s clumsiness.
The Canadian was slapped with a 10s penalty for the incident, one of three drivers to pick up penalties – Sargeant for a Safety Car infringement and Magnussen for causing a collision with Tsunoda.
With the two RBs out, Verstappen led the race from Norris, Leclerc, Perez, Alonso, Sainz, Russell, Piastri, Hulkenberg, and Hamilton.
As he had in the race’s early stages, Verstappen pulled away out front while Norris held on in second ahead of Leclerc, who had Perez for company.
The Red Bull Racing driver was within DRS range but unable to surge by the Ferrari.
He finally made the move stick at Turn 6 on Lap 39, climbing to third but 5.6s back from Norris in second with 17 laps remaining.
Running eighth, McLaren advised Piastri that he was carrying significant damage.
He’d fallen more than five seconds back from Russell in seventh following the restart, and was vulnerable to a charging Hamilton, who’d passed Hulkenberg for ninth on Lap 41 with a wonderful move around the outside at Turn 8.
Alonso pitted on Lap 44, swapping his soft tyres onto the hards as he fell from fifth to 12th.
He climbed back into the points on Lap 46, setting a new fastest lap as he stormed his way forward.
Hulkenberg was his next victim, dropping behind the Aston Martin at Turn 14 on Lap 47.
Pushing hard, Alonso dropped a wheel over the back of the kerb exiting Turn 16 to slew sideways at the end of Lap 48.
It hardly slowed his progress as he scythed by Hamilton at Turn 6 half a lap later, with Piastri losing out before the end of Lap 49.
The McLaren driver had done well to hold Hamilton at bay despite his MCL38 carrying damage to the diffuser.
Alonso’s charge ran out of steam there, unable to reach Russell ahead as he took the flag seventh.
Up the road, Verstappen eased to another win, more than 13s clear of Norris, who put in a fine performance for McLaren.
Perez completed the podium ahead of the two Ferraris, Leclerc ahead of Sainz.
Behind Alonso, Piastri held on to eighth with his damaged car, with Hamilton ninth and Hulkenberg 10th.
