Hamilton had started from pole but Ferrari driver Vettel got the jump on the Mercedes driver to take the lead into the first corner. Behind them, their respective team-mates Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen, and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, clashed when they tried to take the first corner three wide.

Bottas escaped damage but Raikkonen and Verstappen were both out of the race.

Vettel looked in control early on as he built an early lead, but the Ferrari driver would be delayed after the first round of pitstops when Vettel got stuck behind Bottas, who was running a longer first stint.

Then came the decisive strategic move from Mercedes. It acted immediately to bring Hamilton into the pits for his second set of tyres when Safety Car conditions were declared after Stoffel Vandoorne.

Vettel pitted a lap later, but his stop was under green flag conditions at full race speed - allowing Hamilton to gain vital seconds. Vettel barely made it out of the pits with his lead intact, and thereafter came under siege from Hamilton.

A thrilling battle ensued, with Hamilton ending up squeezed off the circuit at one point as he tried to go around the outside of the Ferrari at Turn 1. But he would not have to wait long, the Mercedes driver blasting past on the straight a few laps later to take a lead he would not lose.

They finished in that order, but Bottas didn’t greet the flag for what would have been third place after his Mercedes’ engine expired at around two-thirds distance.

That left the sole remaining Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo to claim the remaining podium spot, the Australian finishing some 75 seconds in arrears of Vettel.

Ricciardo will look towards the Monaco Grand Prix in two weeks time as a venue that might be better suited to the Renault-powered Red Bull. Meanwhile, Hamilton and Vettel will face one another again in what is shaping up as an epic title fight between the two drivers.