Leclerc relieved to hold off Verstappen after late VSC

The Ferrari driver was helped by a late virtual safety car, which was deployed as Verstappen closed the gap to within a second in the closing stages.

But the weekend belonged to McLaren's Lando Norris who converted pole position into an imperious race victory by a margin of 30 seconds.

Norris now leads the drivers championship by a single point from teammate Oscar Piastri, with Verstappen closing the margin to the P1 in the championship to 36 points.

A late VSC to recover Carlos Sainz's retired Williams put pain to Verstappen's late charge and robbed fans of a thrilling finale.

Speaking after the race, Leclerc said: "Very happy with this weekend. Austin was very positive but to end up on the podium again is a great surprise. Very happy to be on this amazing podium again.

"I was quite happy about the VSC at the end! My tyres were completely gone. I could see Max was coming back on the softs.

"It was tough, but the VSC saved me at the end."

F1 Race Director Rui Marques deployed the VSC as marshals recovered Sainz's Williams from the final sector of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit.

Due to its deployment, Verstappen was unable to use his DRS advantage and launch full attack on the Monegasque driver into the last couple laps of the Grand Prix.

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