The 19-lap event featured three safety car periods and featured drivers opting to use the soft tires for big gains early on and restarting the safety car, before pulling back as the race continued on their rubber.
A triple crash that triggered the third safety car eliminated Sergio Perez and sealed Verstappen’s title.
At the start, Piastri kept the lead off the line from pole while his front row colleague and medium tire starter Lando Norris and Verstappen, also on yellow-walled rubber from third, overwhelmed the cars that started on the soft tires – George Russell, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc. .
The race was then neutralized by the safety car being called into action shortly after Liam Lawson spun out from the back of the pack at Turn 2, appearing to lose the back of his solo AlphaTauri car on the long left-hander and swerving backwards. Gravel.
When the race resumed on lap three, Piastri brought the drive back up to full race speed but lost the lead when Russell made a late dive to the inside of the turn six chicane – leading while Piastri slid a touch and lost momentum exiting the corner.
The proceedings were then neutralized by another safety car period – required because Logan Sargeant spun out on his own running through the right-hand chicane at Turn Nine midway through sector two.
The race restarted again at the start of lap seven, where the medium tire drivers were told that the cars on the soft tires were already seeing rubber beads, and the event was expected to swing back towards those on the firmer compound.
Russell was better than Piastri on the second restart, firing clear before the track’s final turns once the safety car rolled into the pits to take a 1.4-second lead as the seventh lap began.
The Mercedes driver was able to keep Piastri out of DRS range for the first few laps after the second restart, with Verstappen moving up to third through DRS-assisted passes on the Ferrari duo on successive laps.
On lap 11, Russell was finally in DRS range for Piastri as the soft tire sway appeared as many engineers had predicted and the McLaren driver returned to the lead as the DRS rolled into the first corner.
A few seconds later, the third safety car was required to intervene when a three-way battle broke out between Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez in the lower reaches of the top ten, sending all three cars off the road at Turn 2.
Ocon was under pressure as the soft tire driver versus the other two on medium tyres, and while he fended off Hulkenberg’s attention into and out of Turn 1, Perez spun into Turn 2, with Ocon moving to the right, causing the Haas to jam. Contact was made and Ocon and Perez were put on the spot – with Hulkenberg managing to escape the scene before pulling out of the pitlane.
The race restarted again on lap 15, with Russell arguing heatedly with a Mercedes engineer in favor of stopping during the final safety car because he felt his tires had gone, a suggestion rejected by his team.
Piastri duly overtook Russell, with Verstappen taking second after a DRS blast into Turn 1 next time out, as the leader established a 2.6-second lead over the recovering Red Bull.
Verstappen posted the two fastest laps through the first two of the remaining three, but couldn’t eat into Piastri’s lead enough to make a move at all.
Piastri had his legs on the final lap to take Verstappen’s lead to finish 1.8 seconds clear, with Norris recovering to third after overtaking a pair of Ferraris in the first two laps after the third safety car expired, then getting past Russell with a move around the outside of the car. Turn 1 in the final round.
Russell finished fourth – ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who moved up the order after his shock Q2 elimination and finished 12th on the grid thanks to an Ocon, Hülkenberg and Pérez shunt that occurred directly in front of him and the Ferrari. Drivers fade in the final laps.
Of the pair in red, Leclerc passed Norris for fifth place just after the third restart before the McLaren driver’s average tire life advantage came to fruition, with Sainz under pressure from his teammate after Norris qualified.
Leclerc’s lead ahead of Hamilton at Turn 6 on the final lap gave Sainz some breathing room, but it was not enough as the Mercedes driver worked his way past both Ferraris on the final lap.
With Sainz and Leclerc in sixth and seventh, Alex Albon made several late gains to move up to ninth, with starting pairing Fernando Alonso and Pierre Gasly falling to ninth and 10th after leading Hamilton in the immediate period following the third restart.
At the back of the field, Lance Stroll, Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu pitted as the final safety car arrived, but were unable to use their new rubber to make an impact.
Leclerc and Stroll face a post-race investigation for apparent track limit violations.
