But racing was paused again on lap 12, as Mick Schumacher understeered into Kimi Räikkönen while the pair fought for 16th; his front wing detaching, becoming trapped under his car and spraying debris across the circuit.
The virtual safety car period ended on lap 14, with the Red Bulls appearing to gain, Verstappen running 1.5sec ahead of Perez with Hamilton a further second behind.
Leclerc followed the top ten, then came Sainz, Vettel, Gasly, Ricciardo and Ocon.
Lewis Hamilton was well within DRS range of Perez on lap 16, pulling closer on the straights, as Max pleaded over the radio for Verstappen to drop back so he could use DRS to defend.
But Verstappen was 2.5sec down the road and Perez couldn’t resist the reigning champion at his favourite hunting ground of Turn 1. At the start of lap 18, the Mercedes swept around the outside and held on through the Senna esses but Perez finally got DRS courtesy of the Mercedes now ahead, and he passed on the next straight.
He couldn’t respond to a second Hamilton attack at the same place and in the same way on lap 19. Hamilton once again took second on the outside and this time he was away, pulling out 2,3sec on the Red Bull by lap 21, with Verstappen 3.8sec ahead.
Turn 1 was a happy hunting ground this weekend for Hamilton, who passed Perez on the outside
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Daniel Ricciardo passed Vettel for eighth on lap 21, and the second Aston Martin lost out at the same time; Lance Stroll being passed by Fernando Alonso for 11th. Stroll pitted on lap 23, moving Norris up another place to 13th.
Verstappen was maintaining a 3.5sec gap to Hamilton in second, as Perez fell back, 6.7sec behind the leader on lap 23, but untroubled by Bottas who was running 2sec behind, with the Ferraris a further 4sec behind.
Max Verstappen said that he was starting to slide on his medium tyres on lap 24 and a lap later, Hamilton delivered a similar message as the pitstops approached.
Gasly pitted on lap 26, dropping from seventh to 15th and he was followed by Hamilton a lap later. He was fitted with hard tyres in a 2.4sec stopped and returned sixth, 6sec behind Daniel Ricciardo and ahead of Vettel.
Carlos Sainz pitted behind him, slotting in 13th and putting on medium tyres, in contrast to the other leading cars
Red Bull responded immediately, pulling in Verstappen on lap 28 with an identical 2.4sec stop and exited on hard tyres. The gap to Hamilton had been cut to 1.6sec and could have been even smaller had Hamilton not been delayed by Ricciardo’s McLaren.
Sergio Perez stopped on lap 29, coming out on hard tyres behind Ricciardo in fifth and leaving Bottas in the lead, with no indication that Mercedes was preparing for a stop.
Pierre Gasly, on his fresher tyres, moved ahead of Norris at Turn 1 on lap 30, just before a virtual safety car was called when large sections of Lance Stroll’s floor disintegrated on the start/finish straight — a result of the Tsunoda incident.
It gave Mercedes the chance to pit Bottas while the cars on track had slowed their pace and he jumped Perez to come back out third behind Hamilton. There was more bad news for Red Bull as Hamilton moved to within a second of Verstappen and into the DRS zone.
Fernando Alonso was running fifth, having not stopped, but his descent through the top ten began, as Leclerc, on new medium tyres, went past. He finally pitted on lap 35, a low 4sec stop putting him out in 14th place, ahead of the ailing Stroll, who would soon retire.
Ricciardo’s stop dropped him behind Pierre Gasly and the Australian was running within around a second of the AlphaTauri, eyeing its seventh place.
Esteban Ocon went past Yuki Tsunoda for tenth place on lap 38, as Lando Norris dropped out of the points for his second stop for hard tyres.
Ferrari opted to run a middle stint on medium tyres
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The Ferrari pair on medium tyres weren’t setting the timing sheets alight, despite being the only cars apart from Mick Schumacher’s Haas to run the compound. Leclerc was 24sec behind Verstappen and Sainz 4sec further behind, and just 1.5sec ahead of Gasly.
Tsunoda continued to fall back on lap 40, passed by both Vettel and Alonso on the start-finish straight.
Hamilton was asked which compound of tyre he would prefer if he stopped again and he kept his answer secret, responding by flicking a switch on his steering wheel.
But Verstappen moved first this time on lap 41 – after complaining on the radio that he was vulnerable to Mercedes pitting first and gaining from the undercut.
After a 2.7sec stop, his exit was blocked by the Williams of Nicholas Latifi leaving his box at the end of the pitlane, but he was soon past the Canadian.
Bottas stopped for hard tyres a lap later, returning in fifth, behind Charles Leclerc. The Finn asked whether the team were sure about the tactic. “Affirm” came the response.
