The Red Bull driver edged last week’s Bahrain Grand Prix winner, Charles Leclerc, to the line by 0.549 seconds.

Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz, fended off the pole-sitter, Sergio Perez, to round off the podium.

For Verstappen and Perez, it is important that they both earned points following the disaster in Bahrain.

“The Ferraris were really quick through the corners; we were quick on the straights. The tyres were wearing out quite quick. You could see in the end we had a little bit more pace so I tried to get by.

“It wasn’t easy playing smart tricks in the last corner.

“Eventually I managed to get ahead, but even after that Charles was constantly in the DRS and then with the yellow flags in the last lap, just knowing how much you should lift, what is allowed or not, it was tough. But just really happy to kickstart the season.”

Despite having to settle for second Leclerc lauded the race and he stated that he wished every race could be like that.

“It wasn’t enough today, but I really enjoyed the race,” said Leclerc.

“Again, it was hard racing but fair. Every race should be like this. It was fun. I am of course disappointed – I wanted to win today. It was very, very tricky. I tried to have the DRS in the last corner. It worked twice, but it didn’t the last time.

“We were quick in the corners but quite slow in the straights because we put more downforce, so it was extremely difficult to cover Max in the straights. But it’s like this – he did a great job and it was a fun race.”

The 7-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton, finished in 10th.

The next stop on the calendar is Albert Park in Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix on 10 April.

Morgan Piek/OFM Sport