Starting fourth, Vandoorne was able to keep track of the leading trio of polesitter Mitch Evans, Pascal Wehrlein and Jean-Eric Vergne, sticking behind and opting to save energy in the early stages.
Once the first flurry of attack mode activations took place after the opening 10 laps, Vandoorne was able to restore his position by quickly getting past Robin Frijns and then picked off Evans, who had fallen behind Wehrlein and an undercut from Vergne.
