Safety cares

The race was held up for 15 minutes after debutant Isack Hadjar lost control in the formation lap and rear-ended his Racing Bulls car into a wall.

With his rear wing damaged and his race over, the unharmed Frenchman was in tears as his car was hauled off track.

Australian rookie Jack Doohan was gone soon after the restart, crashing his Alpine at turn six on the first lap, triggering the safety car, as his father Mick, the motorcycling great, looked on in disbelief from the team garage.

The drama continued as Sainz spun out of control at turn 14 during the safety car's deployment.

While Norris had a clean start, Piastri was skidding left and right in the first turn, allowing Verstappen to roar past him on the outside.

But Verstappen later locked a front brake and veered wide to allow Piastri to snatch back second.

With more pace than his teammate, Piastri had Norris in his sights, but was ordered to hold position by the McLaren garage until a rain shower passed.

Two-time world champion Fernando Alonso became the fourth car knocked out, when his Aston Martin veered off track at turn seven on lap 34 and crashed, bringing out the safety car again.

Norris and Piastri pitted to change to hard tyres, but, 10 laps later, another shower wreaked havoc, with Piastri skidding into gravel and ending up in the grass.

Red Bull's Liam Lawson and Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto then crashed out in quick succession, triggering the safety car for a third time.

While that gave Verstappen a last crack at reeling Norris in, the Briton held the relentless Dutchman at bay to land the first blow in the championship ahead of round two in China.

Reuters