Verstappen Holds Off a Gunning Norris in Imola

Qualifying results meant that Verstappen took yet another pole position. The two McLaren’s were less than a tenth slower than Verstappen, with Oscar Piastri being slightly quicker than his race winning teammate, Lando Norris.

Unfortunately for Piastri, a three-place grid penalty (as a result of impeding Kevin Magnussen in Q1) meant that he would move down and start the race in P5 – behind the two Ferrari’s who were looking for an impressive home race finish.

Fernando Alonso had a qualifying session to forget as he ended up on the last row of the grid. However, the Aston Martin team decided to repair parts of his car which meant he would start in the pit lane.

Most of the drivers began the race on the medium tyres. A couple went for the soft tyre option (Alonso and Gasly), and some went for the hard compound (Perez, Zhou and Sargeant).

As the five red lights went out, it was Norris who had the strong initial getaway. However, Verstappen was able to hold onto his lead down into the first chicane with Norris filing in behind – the top 6 not changing position.

Lewis Hamilton managed to move up to P7, slotting in behind his teammate, George Russell. Sergio Perez also overtook Ricciardo to get up into the points paying positions after a poor qualifying.

Verstappen’s lead increased lap by lap and Norris was out of DRS range by Lap 4. Leclerc behind him was also out of DRS range, but Sainz and Piastri were hot on his heels.

A little further down the grid, a DRS train was forming behind Nico Hulkenberg in P8. He had a very good start from P10.

Alonso made his first stop at the end of Lap 7 followed by Albon, Gasly and Bottas coming in a lap later.

It didn’t take long until a bit of drama occurred. Alex Albon left the pits and reported that he “had a problem” and his front-right tyre wasn’t on properly. The Thai driver managed to make his way round the circuit and headed back into the pits to rectify the issue. This meant his race was over, and was already one lap down. To add salt to the wound, he was given a 10-second penalty for this incident.

Replays showed that when Alonso was exiting the pits, his front brakes were on fire. Elsewhere, other drivers started their mandatory pit stop. One of these included Tsunoda who was called in after not being able to get past Hulkenberg and his DRS train.

Hulkenberg pitted one lap after Tsunoda, but the Japanese driver had completed the undercut on the German.

At the front of the grid, Verstappen’s lead had grown to 5 seconds from Norris behind. Piastri was still stuck behind Sainz – these two drivers already having some contact at previous race weekends this season. Their battle for P5 continued.

Another replay showed that Perez had an off moment into the gravel on Lap 18. He ran wide and drove through the gravel which lost him valuable time. He didn’t lose any positions, but Stroll in P9 was able to close up to him.

By Lap 21, Verstappen reported that his front left tyre was “not good”. This came at the same time George Russell made a stop to switch his yellow boots for the white hard tyres.

Lando Norris pitted at the end of Lap 22 from P2. He came out in P7 behind Perez. However, it didn’t take long for the speedy Brit to get past him – he managed it the lap later!

Oscar Piastri pitted at the end of Lap 23 (his stop being a very quick 2.2 seconds). It was at this time where we found out that Verstappen had been shown the black and white flags for track limits. The Dutchman then pitted for fresh tyres.

Ferrari were looking to do an overcut on Norris after the Brit found himself in some traffic but the McLaren’s on their fresh tyres were very quick!

The Scuderia brought Monegasque, Leclerc, in one lap later – leaving Sainz and Hamilton out front as both had not yet pitted. Leclerc and Piastri picked off Perez quickly, while Sainz and Hamilton each made their pit stops at the end of Lap 27.

Sainz found himself behind the Red Bull of Perez which helped McLaren team because he now needed to find his way past the blocker. Meanwhile, Hulkenberg and Tsunoda pulled off amazing moves past Sargeant who was yet to box.

The front runner order remained the same, but Norris was starting to question his pace. “Why am I so much slower than the guys behind?” he came on his team radio asking on Lap 35. His race engineer, William Joseph, simply replied that the drivers behind were using their tyres more.

Hamilton was onto the back of Perez in a battle for seventh place. The two drivers were on different strategies, and so the Mexican did not make things too difficult for Hamilton as swept past through Tamburello.

Perez, Stroll and Magnussen all pitted at the end of Lap 37. Perez came out of the pits in P11, about 2 seconds behind Ricciardo in P10. It didn’t take long until the Red Bull was past the RB (who was on much older tyres).

Back up at the front of the pack, Leclerc was catching up to Norris. He managed to get under a second of the McLaren and was in DRS range. Leclerc’s new race engineer informed him that he was “the fastest car on track”. The gap between Norris and Verstappen in the lead was around 6 seconds.

There were duels in the midfield too! Stroll was hunting down Hulkenberg for the last points paying position. Magnussen was hunting after Zhou, and Bottas looked like he was in trouble with Esteban Ocon hunting him down.

Lando Norris seemed to have dropped Leclerc. Replays showed the Ferrari driver going over a chicane, causing him to lose time to the McLaren. Would that have made much difference to the podium outcome? Probably not. Lando Norris, with his well-kept tyres, was absolutely flying and was catching Verstappen each lap that ticked down. By Lap 52, the gap between Verstappen and Norris was only 4 seconds.

With just seven laps to go, Norris had bought the gap down to 2 seconds. Verstappen came on the radio to express his annoyance at Yuki Tsunoda whom he felt did not follow the blue flag procedure quickly enough.

It was a miserable day for Alex Albon who became the first retiree of the race. Williams asked him to bring the car home. However, this did not take away from the racing that was happening on-track.

There was a shaky moment for McLaren and Lando fans when he had a moment of oversteer which slightly knocked him off his charge. As the final few laps ticked down, Norris started to struggle for grip.

In the end, it was another victory for Max Verstappen. However, it was an incredible driver by Norris who had lowered the gap to 0.725 seconds as he crossed the finish line.

The Mercedes duo followed in a relatively lonely sixth and seventh. Perez took eighth place in the Red Bull. Stroll and Tsunoda rounded out the top 10 – taking valuable points for their respective teams.

Here is the final classification:

Verstappen

Norris (DOTD)

Leclerc

Piastri

Sainz

Hamilton

Russell (Fastest Lap)

Perez

Stroll

Tsunoda

Hulkenberg

Magnussen

Ricciardo

Ocon

Zhou

Gasly

Sargeant

Bottas

Alonso

Albon (DNF)

Here is a quote from our race winner: “I think the whole race I had to push flat out to try and make a gap initially. I think on the medium tyres we were quite strong, on the hard tyres it was just a bit more difficult to manage, especially in the last 10, 15 laps. I had no grip anymore, I was really sliding a lot.”

“I saw Lando closing in, so the last 10 laps I was just flat out. It’s very difficult when the tyres are not working anymore and you have to go flat-out. I couldn't afford to make too many mistakes. Luckily we didn’t, and super happy of course to win here today.”

Next weekend we head to the streets on Monaco – and Charles Leclerc’s home race! Let’s see if the home hero can get a home podium for the first time in his career.