Norris was left to rue the pit stop decision – “How did we not win this?” he said over the radio. “We can make it easier for ourselves.”

But this was a strong showing from McLaren, who introduced a major upgrade package this weekend, which brought them right into the fight with Mercedes.

Leclerc was brought in on lap 21 for his stop, and complained over the radio that he had not been consulted.

The decision did drop him down the field and force him to fight past slower cars. He regained third, but then lost it again to Norris’ team-mate Oscar Piastri on the penultimate lap as he began to struggle for grip.

Leclerc then spun on his own on the last lap, shortly after Piastri had overtaken him, and he lost two further positions into and out of the final corner, as first Russell and then Verstappen came past him.

Verstappen pitted under the safety car for his fresh tyres, hoping the gamble would pay off. It dropped him to the back, but with some aggressive overtaking and the others pitting in front of him, it put him in the lead mid-race.

But he was never going to hold on with his worn tyres, and he slipped down. Still, fifth was a decent result after his early error, which was followed by some very aggressive racing that prompted complaints from some of his rivals.

Leclerc slipped back to sixth, ahead of team-mate lewis Hamilton, whose car was damaged in a first-lap clash with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto.

The Argentine took eighth, ahead of the Williams cars of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.