Max prevailed in a grand prix marred by controversy in Melbourne. The race finished behind the safety car following a crash-affected restart which was the result of Haas' Kevin Magnussen's collision at the chicane which left a trail of debris strewn over the track.
On the restart, Ferrari's Carlos Sainz ran wide into Fernando Alonso, spinning his Aston Martin. The chaos that ensued saw friendly fire from the Alpines that ended both their races and brought the third and final red flag.
FIA regulation meant the grid was reset in the order it was in prior to the second restart which saw Alonso promoted back to third. The creative interpretation of the rules which brought about the safety car had distinct echoes of Abu Dhabi 2021 and like that infamous Verstappen was the victor but this time kept well out of trouble cruising to victory with all the chaos behind.
Baku saw the trial of a new Sprint race format that saw race qualifying take place on a Friday, with a new sprint qualifying setting the grid for the following sprint race on the Saturday.
Despite Leclerc gaining a surprise pole in Friday qualifying, the weekend belonged to the other Red Bull with Perez dominating the sprint race and the main race.
The Ferrari's had taken a major step forward in pace here but the race showed they were still well behind the Red Bulls who both overtook Leclerc within the first three laps.
A fortunate safety car gifted Perez the win over his Dutch counterpart, cutting the deficit between the two of them to just six points. Only they are in the running for the championship and Red Bull are simply on another level in 2023.