With Verstappen in command and the two Mercedes at war, the main interest of the race came down to a staggered strategy between Leclerc at one stop and Perez at two stops in a tense last stint.
At the start, Perez darted well off the line to peek inside pole sitter Verstappen at Turn 1 but was never a serious threat, while Leclerc held on to third place from start and Lewis Hamilton beat Carlos Sainz in fourth.
Leclerc took a quick look at Perez’s attack in the hairpin of Turn 5 further into the first lap, but the initial action then became Sainz re-attacking Hamilton in Turn 6 at the end of the main back straight of the Yas Marina track.
The Ferrari docked under braking from the left side and he edged Hamilton over the curbs, where, as against Verstappen in 2021, the Mercedes scampered over the runoff after briefly getting airborne and held fourth .
As the Red Bull duo pulled away from Leclerc, who was then being harassed by Hamilton, the stewards allowed Sainz to force Hamilton off and instead considered whether the Briton had won by cutting through Turn 7.
Mercedes therefore ordered him to make way for Sainz, which allowed Leclerc to breathe.
He nevertheless fell back from the leading duo during the first phase of the race, before Verstappen began to drop Perez and Leclerc to come back.
Perez became the first driver to stop on lap 15 of 58 to switch from medium to hard, while Verstappen and Leclerc sat out five and six more laps respectively to do the same, giving them a tire life on the Mexican for the second stint. , Perez also having lost time battling Sebastian Vettel to a pit stop with a Turn 6 lockout and a pit stop on his exit lap.
Leclerc was out of his pit stop just past Sainz – another early stopper – and he then began to roll Perez with a series of solid laps.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Ferrari’s pace was so strong that he came just 1.5s behind Perez and was ordered to ‘box in the face’ of Red Bull on lap 33 – the undercut being very powerful and driving the Perez’s team to oppose him this round.
Ferrari then asked Leclerc if he could maintain his pace and tire life to the finish on a “Plan C” one-stop, which he felt he could just about manage.
Leclerc’s charge to reach Perez had brought him within around five seconds of Verstappen by the time Perez came to a stop, but the leader, now fixed on the same stop, loosened over the rest of the race to win by 8.7 seconds – offering advice from Perez on how his tough guys were holding up on a much longer stint and indicating he could push hard until the end.
Perez’s task was to close a 20-second gap to Leclerc in 25 laps, with Sainz and George Russell, who had passed Hamilton on the first stint when the seven-time world champion struggled to find the rhythm and suggested his floor had been damaged in its turn. , getting out of his way as they took the two stops.
Perez therefore only had to clear Hamilton and various stragglers, with Red Bull catching the rear of the Mercedes on lap 45.
As the race descended the straight into Turn 6, Perez attacked Hamilton locking in again here and going deep which helped the Mercedes back into the Hairpin of Turn 9 – in some scenes reminiscent of the reversal of their battle in this race a year ago. therefore helped seal Verstappen’s first title.
Perez didn’t attack at Turn 6 the next time around, but instead waited for a second DRS help before diving inside the Mercedes – which retired late after Hamilton’s gears stopped working following to a suspected hydraulic failure on board his W13 – at turn 9
At this point Perez had a 9.6 second gap to close on Leclerc in 12 laps and Red Bull and Ferrari initially thought he would pull it off.
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
But Leclerc was able to generate some impressive life thanks to his aging toughs and Perez’s pace also returned only to drop from lap to lap – his passing also didn’t help being held back by Pierre Gasly at turn 6 on lap 56 then that the AlphaTauri was chasing the Williams of Alex Albon, which earned Gasly an angry gesture for his future former stablemate.
It was close, Leclerc held on to stay second by 1.3s over Perez, with Sainz fourth and Russell fifth – a potential battle between this Mercedes-led pair having to serve a five-second penalty at their second stop after to have been released. in the way of Lando Norris at his first after a slow left rear tire change.
Norris, who had passed Russell on the first lap before being defeated again in the early stages, held off a late charging Esteban Ocon to seal sixth place by 1.0s.
Lance Stroll won late with the extra grip afforded by the double stop, while Vettel just ran out of laps to wind up one-stop compatriot Daniel Ricciardo – the German finishing 0.6 seconds and having been frustrated with his strategy meaning to run the longest of all in the first stint and thus overtaken by a series of rivals.
The only other incident of note was that Mick Schumacher clipped Nicholas Latifi at turn 5 on lap 40 and spun the Haas into the outer barriers, from where the two were able to pull away.
Williams ordered Latifi out on the final lap with an unspecified issue, joining Fernando Alonso as another DNF rider – the Alpine stopping on lap 28 due to a suspected water leak.
