An inspired call to swit꧟ch to intermediate tyres before anyone else during an early downpour saw Perez rise from seventh on the grid to move iಞnto the race lead. 

Polesitter Verstappen switched onto inters slightly later and subsequently dropped to four🐲th, though he made short work of cutting through the fiel🌞d and reeling in his teammate. 

Verstappen was back in the lead on Lap 13 after Red Bull called him in to🐽 pit for slick tyres a lap before Perez, resulting in🐽 the Dutchman successfully pulling off an undercut. 

The reigning world champion went on to claim a record-equalling ninth successive victory𒆙 and score 🔥his 11th win in 13 races this season. 

♈“The way he [Verstappen] cut through the traffic was quite sensational,” Horner said. 

“Che🐻co had the target to pull the gap on the cars behind him but Max’s pace as he came through the field was such that at one point he took seven seconds 🍃out of him over three laps. And was coming very fast.

“Then you get to that awkward point at the crossover and [Fern☂ando] Alonso and [Pierre] Gasly behind him had pulled the trigger after [to switch to slicks].

“You could see frꦇom Albon [on slicks] that the circuit was comi🦩ng alive for the slicks.

“So had we pitted Checo first they would have both undercut Max so we’d have gone from a ꦬnet one-two to a net one-four. So we♊ pitted Max first with the risk that he’d undercut Checo but we’d end up as a team first and a second.

“It was a no-brainer.”

Perez, who slipped to fourth after ꦬa spin and time penalty for speeding in the pit lane, sounded confused over the team radio when he ꧋re-emerged from the pits in second place, asking: “did Max undercut us?”

But the Mexican downplayed the decisiཧon after the race. 

“Well, I think in those scenarios the ꦓteam just have more information than we do at the time,♑” Perez said.

“It’s somethin🍷g we obviously will ♏review during the meeting. I’m sure there’s a reason behind it.”