It was a classic tight finish. Monaco is next on the schedule.
IMOLA, Italy—It might have been slow going early on for Max Verstappen and his Red Bull team Sunday at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Still, McLaren’s Lando Norris’s last-minute charge gave the Dutchman and defending world champion a battle in the last few laps. But in the end, Verstappen edged out the Briton by seven-tenths of a second for a victory. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took third.
Max Verstappen: The whole race, I had to push to the limit.
Verstappen began the race by just outpacing Norris at the starting line. He went into the first chicane leading and opened a gap, which saw him take a two-second lead by lap nine and extend it to eight. But considering the action of other cars on a circuit that is tough to pass on, Verstappen only lost his lead when he had to pit on lap 23. The Dutchman recovered and took the lead once again.
Verstappen began to have difficulties handling his car as the race continued, the same issue that troubled him on Friday. Up near the front, Norris began to close in on Verstappen, who had more worn tires but a fresher battery change. With only a handful of laps to go, Norris started to catch the Red Bull to the point that he was just under one second behind. Then Norris began to lose tire grip and had to settle for second place as Leclerc, to the delight of the hometown Tifosi fans, came across in third.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz fought each other for most of the race, only for Piastri to come out ahead for fourth. The Mercedes duo of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were next in sixth and seventh, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who never got going in the race, ended up in eighth. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll had a decent enough race and took ninth, with RB’s Yuki Tsunoda finishing in the last point in tenth.
Only one driver did not finish the race. Williams Alex Albon had a bad tire change and slowed down in the first few laps of the race, only to retire the car halfway through.
Max Verstappen: On the medium tire, we were quite strong, but on the hard tire, we struggled, and it’s very difficult when you have to push flat out, and the tires are not working anymore.
Formula One will keep the pace with the annual race with Leclerc’s home circuit–the streets of Monaco–on tap next weekend.
