Verstappen easily took the lead from pole position, while Perez wasted second place on Leclerc after making a slow start and falling behind the Ferrari driver.
Any hopes of a battle for the lead were quickly extinguished when Verstappen outpaced Leclerc by more than half a second per lap, with Perez following Leclerc throughout the first stint before both drivers made their first pit stop.
Leclerc was the first of the leaders to stop to switch from softs to hards on lap 13 of 57, with Verstappen coming in nearly 10s ahead to take a second set of softs after both Red Bull cars came into the race with only one set of whitewall rubber available.
Perez ran a few more laps before stopping to take more softs as well, which he then used to close on Leclerc and take second place with a DRS-assisted blast on the inside of Turn 1 on lap 26.
From there, Verstappen was only hampered by a minor downshift issue that resulted in an occasional rear-end stall and he passed Perez to win by 11.9 seconds after they both made another pit stop to finally take the hard tires in what was a crushing Red Bull performance.
It got even better when Leclerc, who had lost nearly 10 seconds to Perez before making a second stop for fresh tires on lap 33, retired from the race after suddenly losing control on lap 40, with Ferrari later claiming to have “lost the engine” in its SF-23.
This triggered a brief virtual safety car while the Ferrari was recovered, after which Alonso chased down and passed compatriot Carlos Sainz to take the podium in his first appearance with Aston Martin.
He had previously lost a place to Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes on the opening lap, and then another to George Russell when Lance Stroll hit his new Aston teammate with a speeding incident while battling with Russell in Turn 4 of the first lap.
Alonso followed Hamilton through the early tire management phases of the race and both Aston and Mercedes stops. The Spaniard ran long before making his second stop after Mercedes brought Hamilton into the pits a second time to fend off an undercutting threat from his former McLaren teammate.
The two world champions engaged in a thrilling battle for what was then fifth place, with Alonso needing two attempts to pass Hamilton after his first pass at Turn 4 failed, before launching into a brilliant dive at Turns 9/10 to pass the Mercedes.
After the VSC, Alonso quickly caught up with Sainz, who was well behind Leclerc and worried about his second set of hard tires coming to the finish. He also had a run-in with the Ferrari when he tried to pass for the first time at Turn 4 on lap 45, lightly touching the right rear of the Ferrari with his left front.
But moments later, Alonso’s superior pace allowed him to benefit from the DRS on the back straight and he broke away to take a third place he didn’t want to lose again.
Hamilton followed Sainz to the finish in fourth and fifth, with Stroll beating out Russell for sixth after Aston took out the undercoat on his second stop.
In other notable incidents, Pierre Gasly moved up from last to ninth, with Alex Albon 10th for Williams.
Lando Norris stopped five times due to a tire pressure issue on his McLaren before being pulled out late in the race, as did Esteban Ocon after taking three penalties – for not being positioned on his grid, for Alpine working on his car before he finished serving his five-second penalty on his first stop and for speeding in the pitlane.
