Antonelli looked to have taken control of the race as he cycled from third on the initial grid to the lead after two standing starts punctuated by a long delay because of Verstappen’s crash.

The Italian passed Russell for second behind pole-sitter Norris at the first start as the Briton was slowed by the inside of the grid being damper than the outside after a shower of rain.

But the race was stopped after Verstappen had an almighty accident at the end of the first lap.

Running too low through the flat-out final corner, Verstappen’s inside wheels caught the wet painted line and he lost the rear, sending him nose first into the outside wall.

Behind him, Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto also lost control, but somehow he spun while staying on the track and was able to resume.

Verstappen was unhurt and climbed out with no problems as the field reformed in the pits while the track was cleared.

At the restart, the track now dry after a period of sunshine, Antonelli got the jump on Norris and moved into the lead.

Given his dominance at times this year, and the comfortable victory Russell had taken over Norris in the sprint on Saturday, that appeared to put the championship leader in control of the race.

The pair made their first pit stops together on lap 21, resuming in second and third place behind Hamilton, who delayed his stop by a further four laps.

But in the second stint, Norris came into his own. He closed in on Antonelli initially, and held the gap to within two seconds by the time the Mercedes driver made his second pit stop on lap 40.

This was Norris’ chance. McLaren waited a further seven laps to make his stop and he rejoined only 4.8 seconds behind Antonelli.

The pair closed together on Hamilton, on his own off-set strategy, and the three were running nose to tail by lap 52. Two laps later, Antonelli feinted a move down the inside of Hamilton, but it didn’t come off, and it left a space for Norris to leave his braking as late as possible on the clean outside line.

From there, he sailed around the outside of the Mercedes around the long, banked first corner, known as Tarzan, and set off after the Ferrari.

An error by Hamilton through Turn 10 later around the lap gave Norris a run out of the corner, and he drove past the Ferrari on the outside line into the chicane that followed.

That was the race won by Norris, even if there was a bit of jeopardy as McLaren chose not to pit under the VSC while all those bar Russell behind him did, but in the end he had more than enough in hand.