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Verstappen wins Emilia-Romagna GP to close gap on F1 title rivals

What better way might Max Verstappen have marked his determination to stay resolutely in the title fight than with an emphatic victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, ensured with one of the best overtaking moves of his career. He has always maintained that despite the team’s struggle with their car this season his commitment, his will to battle on was unwavering and he demonstrated it with a piece of relentlessly controlled dominance to take victory for Red Bull at Imola.

It was a drive that has become very much the standard, the hallmark of his time at the very top of the sport as the world champion made it abundantly clear that he is intent on maintaining his place in an increasingly intriguing title fight. In beating McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri into second place and third place at a circuit where the McLaren had looked so quick it was no little coup and with fine timing too on the occasion of the Red Bull’s 400th grand prix.

In taking his fourth win in a row at Imola, Verstappen has ensured he is still at the centre of the championship fight, with Piastri now leading by 13 points from Norris and Verstappen in third, 22 points back.

Verstappen’s season thus far has been perhaps most challenging in just maintaining an equilibrium. From the lows of Bahrain, which followed a win in Japan, there was a surge again in Saudi Arabia but having then finished fourth, 40 seconds behind the two McLarens in Miami, the rollercoaster for Verstappen and Red Bull in Imola hurtled upwards once more.

Building on the mighty performance in qualifying to wrestle his Red Bull into second place on Saturday, Verstappen and his team executed with perfection to secure a remarkable win. With Ferrari too finding form to mount a mighty comeback after a woeful qualifying as Lewis Hamilton came back from 12th to fourth and his teammate Charles Leclerc from 11th to sixth, as good a result as the team might have expected at their home grand prix.

For Red Bull, this was a masterly performance from driver and team. Both played the strategy right taking advantage of two safety cars in a car that has been a handful all season. However, at the heart of trying to tame the beast has been Verstappen. A driver who employs something of a mantra in expressing only interest only in performance, of the car, of himself and of the team.

Which can be an arid response, yet it cannot be denied that for Verstappen the approach without doubt delivers. As the mercurial car skews from week to week in performance, Verstappen is there, a rock, to coerce out what he can when it is wilful and wayward and to absolutely soar when it is hitting the marks, as it was in Imola.

A new floor brought to the previous race and some more minor upgrades in Imola had been hoped to have improved its weakness in balance through the corners and certainly Verstappen was happier with it then he has been on many occasions this season.

The crucial moment was one to savour and indeed that Verstappen might enjoy looking back on in years to come, especially if he brings the title home this season. Piastri had just held his lead from pole entering turn one but Verstappen was having none of it. He made an absolute bravura move round the outside, to scythe in front as they went through Tamburello. It was all or nothing for the Dutchman who judged it to perfection, braking as late as he possibly could and riding his speed, doubtless to the shock of Piastri, who would have imagined the corner was already his.

On the narrow track with passing tricky once he had the place he took advantage. McLaren split their strategy with Piastri to two-stop and Norris one but Piastri was a little unlucky when a virtual safety car (VSC) gifted Verstappen and Norris a free stop.

Verstappen and Red Bull had made the most of the VSC on their one-stop strategy and when the stops shook out, he led by a full 20sec from Norris, with Williams’s Alex Albon, who finished fifth, also having benefited enormously in third and Piastri now fourth.

Verstappen, however, was in complete control out front, maintaining 18sec on Norris and with 20 laps to go Piastri was 30sec in arrears.

Kimi Antonelli had to pull over to a halt on lap 46 with a power iproblem and a full safety car was called. Once more the teams took advantage to take a cheap stop but with McLaren opting to leave Piastri out, giving him track position over Norris.

With the field closed up it was a sprint to the finish but with the three leaders on differing levels of tyre use. Racing resumed on lap 54 with seven to go and Verstappen held his lead with a superb restart and neither McLaren was able to challenge. Piastri fell back swiftly and with DRS Norris closed on his teammate and did take advantage with a fine move to claim second on lap 58. He set off after Verstappen but the Dutchman had long since done enough for an emphatic win.

George Russell was seventh for Mercedes, Carlos Sainz eighth for Williams, Isack Hadjar ninth for Racing Bulls and Yuki Tsunoda 10th for Red Bull.

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