On the back of scoring Red Bull's 100th pole position on Saturday, Verstappen was never threatened throughout the first race in Shanghai since 2019 and effortlessly overcame two safety car restarts in the middle period of the race.
After leading the field away without any real threat from behind, Verstappen unearthed a 1.6-second gap at the end of the first lap over the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, who had opened his race with a sumptuous move around the outside of Perez into the first corner.
