The three-time world champion, Dutchman Max Verstappen, is back! Despite a shaky start to the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix weekend in Imola, he emerged again victorious.
He had to put up a strong fight against McLaren’s Lando Norris, who was just 0.7 seconds behind Verstappen in the penultimate lap. As it looked like, Norris could’ve at any moment overtaken Verstappen to secure his career’s second win in a row.
But kudos to Verstappen’s experience throughout the years, he managed to put up Norris’ pressure and secure his 59th win. He also succeeded in adding another feather of achievement to his hat, and that is, he has overtaken Lewis Hamilton’s win percentage and now holds a 30.73% margin compared to Hamilton’s 30.38%.
Verstappen flaunted his experience in Imola
Max Verstappen who started from the pole today, had to push flat out throughout the race. It was as easy and smooth compared to what he had experienced in the earlier races. The RB20 lacked pace and felt off balance. But despite all odds, Max managed to hold his ground. He looked in the Tifosi in the eyes as he took over the Ferrari’s home race.
In the post-race interview, Verstappen said: “The whole race I had to push flat out to try and make it up initially, on the medium tires we were quite strong. On the hard tires, it was a bit more difficult to manage, especially on the last 10 to 15 laps, I had no grip anymore and I was sliding a lot.”
That’s 59 Grand Prix victories for Max! 👏
But boy, he had to work for that one! 🥵#F1 #ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/OsOXVPnfsC
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 19, 2024
Verstappen was heard on the radio, complaining about the car not turning properly in the last 10 laps and his battery almost drained out by the time lap 61 began. This shows that although the conditions weren’t completely in favor of the Red Bulls today, they still managed, especially Max Verstappen outshined everyone to take the podium for the 59th time.
Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix highlights
Almost all the teams had introduced some sort of upgrade on their cars in this weekend’s race. For most teams including Red Bull, the upgrades weren’t supremely favorable, they were flawed and needed immediate improvement. Except for McLaren, almost no other team could merge symbiotically with the upgrades, and once again their results were outstanding.
Max Verstappen did everything he could do, to control the pace, but Lando Norris did not give up. Norris missed his second win by just 0.7 seconds, Oscar Piastri was one of the fastest on track after his first pitstop. He succeeded in holding off Carlos Sainz behind him for the entire race.
Charles Leclerc became the first Ferrari driver after Michael Schumacher since 2006, to finally hold a podium at the Imola Grand Prix. Leclerc was able to hold his third position throughout the race, out-performing his teammate Carlos, who seemed particularly subpar today, despite being able to hold Oscar Piastri behind him for the first 20 laps.
Piastri started in P5 and finished in P4, he told Sky Sports: “It was very tough, basically impossible to overtake today, I tried my best. I had like 20 laps behind Carlos trying to get past and I could never get close enough.”
Yuki Tsunoda gave one of his best performances so far and finished tenth. Sergio Perez was able to secure points by finishing eighth, while Alex Albon had to retire his car due to technical issues.
🏁 Max holds off Lando to the flag
🏆 Ferrari on the podium on home turf
📈 Lance marks 150 starts with pointsHere’s the top ten from the #ImolaGP 👇#F1 pic.twitter.com/KZQDswSHcC
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 19, 2024
It was overall a very engaging race at Imola, not all a one-man show but a race that proved that McLaren and Ferrari are here to challenge Red Bull’s dominance throughout this season. With the Monaco Grand Prix up next weekend, it will be interesting to see what the teams have hidden up their sleeves.