EMILIA-ROMAGNA GP – Max Verstappen takes a dominant win at Imola after fending off Charles Leclerc early on

Testing & Race Reports
Jack
24-04-2022

Max Verstappen drove a dominant race to win the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix finishing sixteen seconds ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez. The world champion looked unstoppable after holding the lead from pole as he fended off his championship rival and pulled ahead following an early safety car.

Following the safety car, Verstappen soon set about opening the lead from Charles Leclerc who soon lost out to the McLaren of Lando Norris. By the time the first pit stop came on lap twenty, Verstappen retained the lead over Leclerc, who then lost out to Perez who managed to pass the Ferrari on the out lap at the Villeneuve Chicane.

Verstappen was in total control after converting his pole position, from winning Saturday’s sprint, into a lead at the first corner. The entire grid starting on the inters, Leclerc lost out at the start, being overtaken by Perez and Norris before the safety car was deployed for Carlos Sainz’s beaching himself in the gravel.

It was a second successive retirement for the Spaniard and marked the end of a disappointing weekend which had begun with the team announcing a two-year contract extension for him.

The Dutchman has now won both the races he has finished this season after being forced to retire in Bahrain and Australia because of reliability issues, eased to victory as he navigated the challenging conditions with relative ease.

Leclerc lost third following a spin at Variante Alta with ten laps to go as he went too hard into the corner launching himself over the kerb, that lead to Kevin Magnussen, George Russell and Valtteri Bottas closing in gaining positions. While the Monacan ended up seventh, on the closing lap he managed to catch and pass Yuki Tsunoda.

Until his mistake, Leclerc looked to be on course for third, but that forced him into an extra pit stop and threw away his forty-five point lead with Verstappen’s win seeing it cut to twenty-seven, as the Dutchman moved up to second in the drivers. It was another close battle between the two title rivals, and wasn’t what Ferrari wanted.

The error cost Leclerc seven points – the difference between third and sixth places – and he said afterwards he was “disappointed in myself”.

He added: “I tried too much. On that lap, I obviously wanted to give it all but I gave too much and finished into the wall. Instead of the third-place we lose seven potential points which will be important at the end of the season and today it is my full responsibility.”

Norris’s third-place showed that McLaren is back, the team had a difficult start in Bahrain but has proved competitive this weekend finishing ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell.

With the entire grid starting on intermediate tyres, Leclerc was overtaken by Perez and Norris off the line.

Russell had an excellent fight throughout the race with Valtteri Bottas, the Englishman working his way from eleventh to hold off Finn in the closing stages. Mercedes were unable to adjust his front wing as planned during their pit stop, which meant he was battling with a difficult balance for the rest of the race.

Russell again being able to maximise results in the Mercedes, most of the work being done on the opening lap and one of the best overtakes of the race on Kevin Magnussen at Variante Alta.

That was as far more impressive when compared to Hamilton’s experience. The seven-time world champion gained three early positions himself but was unable to improve from there, and in fact went backwards. Russell now being the only driver to finish in the top five all season, putting him two points behind Verstappen.

Behind Leclerc, was the Alpha Tauri of Yuki Tsunoda, the Japanese driver coming from fourteenth to seventh following a more difficult home race for the team than might have been expected. His teammate Pierre Gasly meanwhile found himself going backwards, in the Frenchman’s worst race in years and at Imola he could only manage thirteenth.

Sebastian Vettel scored Aston Martin’s first points of the season along with teammate Lance Stroll, finishing eighth and tenth respectively. They were split by the Haas of Magnussen, who was the final car on the lead lap.

Alex Albon brought his Williams home eleventh ahead of Hamilton and Gasly. While Esteban Ocon finished fourteenth, thanks to a five-second penalty for an unsafe release during the switch from inters to slicks, which forced Hamilton to lift off in the pitlane and drop a place.

Unlike Russell, Hamilton was unable to make up ground at the start and his race soon fell into a dispiriting pattern. The seven time champion finding himself stuck for the remainder of the race, before being lapped by Verstappen. Hamilton repeating his message from Saturday, that he was now out of the championship.

Saying, “A weekend to forget, that’s for sure. I’m out of the championship, for sure. There’s no question about that, but I’ll still keep working as hard as I can and try to pull it back together somehow.”

That cost the Alpine two places, with him finishing ahead of Guanyu Zhou. Nicolas Latifi finished sixteenth ahead of Mick Schumacher and Daniel Ricciardo.

Carlos Sainz disastrous weekend continued, despite recovering ground in the sprint to start fourth his race only lasted until Tamburello. The Spaniard spun and hit Ricciardo taking himself out of the race and leading to Ricciardo running a lonely race at the back finishing eighteen seconds behind Schumacher.

Sainz’s second retirement in two races was not the way he would have wanted to celebrate a contract extension with Ferrari.

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