"I was pushing, especially in the last two laps. It was a little bit stressful, I'm not going to lie.

"This time we got it right and ended on top, so I'm happy."

Red Bull kept Verstappen out on worn tyres hoping for a break in the rain, but he was ultimately forced to pit, potentially costing him a better shot at Norris.

Verstappen said it was "worth the gamble".

"It was quite spicy on the slick tyres. It was alright in the end," he said.

"This is where I expected to be. In the first stint, we were lacking a bit of pace to the McLaren."

Lewis Hamilton's debut for Ferrari proved a damp squib, with the Briton finishing 10th, two places behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

Seven-time world champion Hamilton complained his car was "hard to drive", and said the team had made the wrong call with the weather late on, which proved costly.

"It was very tricky, and it went a lot worse than I thought it would go," he said.

"I'm just grateful I kept (the car) out of the wall, because that's really where it wanted to go most of the time."

It was a more encouraging day for Williams, with Alex Albon promoted to fourth, though Carlos Sainz crashed out in his debut for the team.

Mercedes' 18-year-old rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli crossed fourth in an excellent debut, but dropped to fifth due to a five-second penalty for an unsafe release from the pit.

Lance Stroll was sixth for Aston Martin, while Sauber also celebrated points for seventh-placed Nico Hulkenberg.