A strong start from the frontrunners meant that the top three stayed the same with home favourite, Max Verstappen in first with the two Ferraris behind.
Hamilton had a slow getaway in fourth on the medium tyre as the struggled to keep Perez behind. The Mexican required an engine change before the race, but no penalty was given to the Red Bull driver as it was an old unit.
Russell and Norris jostled for sixth position with the Mercedes driver eventually coming out on top.
Esteban Ocon had a strong start to pull himself into the points.
It was a clean getaway for everyone expect Magnussen who ran wide on the opening lap costing him time, and crucially, tyre life.
Lap 12 and the two-stoppers started to come in. Alonso meanwhile was on a charge as he danced past the two Alpha Tauri cars. It took him up to 11th as he fought back to the points paying positons.
He was in shortly after and surprised many by putting on the hard tyre. A compound many people felt was unviable in race conditions.
Carlos Sainz came in on lap 15 just ahead of Hamilton who was closing in on the fresher medium tyre.
The mechanics weren’t ready however and it must have felt like an age as the Spaniard waited for his team to correct their error.
A 12 second pit-stop put Hamilton in a good position for third place while a rogue wheel gun also posed problems for Perez as he left his pit box just behind Sainz.
The two Mercedes continued to pump out good times at teh front as they pushed on with their one-stop strategy. Toto Wolff would have felt comfortable in the knowledge that the guys behind all had two-stops to go.
Verstappen continued to close in, setting a fastest lap on his travels, but it seemed the tyres had already lost their shine with only minimal gains as approached Russell’s gearbox.
Hamilton came in for his one and only stop soon after putting on the hard compound as required by the strategy. It would now be up to Red Bull to decide when they’d like to make that move and bring Verstappen in.
The Aston Martins looked strong all weekend and Lance Stroll was the driver making the most of it. After a strong qualifying he was in 8th place as the race approached the halfway mark, with hopes of bringing some much-needed points home for the team.
2021 flashbacks
Hamilton vs Verstappen. Have we been here before? The Mercedes driver eventually got past Perez after a great battle swooping around the outside of Turn 1. The Brit was held up by Vettel as he came out of the pits allowing Perez to have a half-hearted attempt at re-overtaking him.
Russell followed his teammate through as it became clear Perez had burnt his tyres out defending from Hamilton. He did cost the Brit a crucial few seconds though which could benefit his teammate later in the race.
We were already expecting a grandstand finish with Red Bull and Mercedes battling for the lead in the closing stages.
This was accelerated with a bizarre chain of events in the Alpha Tauri garage.
Yuki Tsunoda stopped on track saying his tyres were incorrectly fitted before making it back to the pits. After leaving on a fresh set of the boots he then stopped on the side of the road with car issues.
This brought Verstappen back into contention for the race win and he duly pit under the VSC for hard tyres.
Mercedes double-stacked behind putting their cars on the faster medium compound as they now hunted down Verstappen in first.
Alonso and Norris were looking to make progress as they sat in 8th and 9th respectively on the soft compound. Any position gains will prove crucial in the battle for fourth at the end of the season with tension between the teams fresh from the ruling on Oscar Piastri’s contract.
Compound troubles
The drama continued as the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas stopped on the home straight bringing out the Safety Car.
Verstappen and Russell switched over to the soft tyre promoting Hamilton to the top step. It felt eerily like Abu Dhabi 2021 for the Brit as he was inevitably going to be swarmed by the faster cars on the restart. Would he be able to keep them at bay?
It didn’t take long for Verstappen and Russell to get past making the most of the faster compound. Hamilton was furious and let his team know it over the radio.
To add insult to injury, the podium slipped out of his grasp, as Leclerc swooped past to ease the pain on the Ferrari team after another disappointing weekend.
Carlos Sainz after that pit stop blunder closed up on the Brit in 5th place. Any joy quickly disintegrated after being handed a five second time penalty for an unsafe release in the pit-stop frenzy that followed the introduction of the Safety Car.
In a truly captivating grand prix in which any of the top three teams looked liked they could have won it was once again Verstappen who came through for the victory.
Red Bull do not make any mistakes in 2022 and under pressure, they made the right strategy calls, adding the point from the fastest lap to cement their place at the top of both championships.
A solid podium for Russell who made the right call coming in for the soft compound at the end while Leclerc came home in P3.