If it was not the easiest victory, one of the easiest in the sporting career of Max Verstappen undoubtedly. The Dutchman rode in a wet Imola in which he had no problem winning the Emilia Romagna GP.
They accompanied him on the podium Sergio Perezwho gave a lesson on how to be a squire, and a charles leclerc who fought with him for second place until the final laps… when he spun. The Mexican finished 2nd and lando norristhird.
For the Spaniards it was a race to forget: Sainz and Alonso finished out in the first few laps. They were the only dropouts of the race.
Exit: Spanish deblacle
The race could not have started worse for Spanish aspirations. The poor start of the Ferrari, both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainzwas especially critical for the Spanish, who saw how Daniel Ricciardo gave him a touch in the first variant and both ended up off the track, with Valtteri Bottas as a luxury spectator in the front row.
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The rojigualdas hopes were totally eliminated at the same time. While Sainz stopped the car in the pozzolana, Mike Schumacher had a spin with such bad luck that it hit the side of the Alpine of Fernando Alonso.
The Asturian was able to continue but with the car already very damaged, finally, he put it in the pits to leave.
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The race stabilized from that moment and there was little to tell, but very significant.
Verstappen laps Hamilton
As Verstappen made his escape and Pérez held on to his pursuers (Leclerc first), the track began to dry out. The first to put dry tires (medium), was Daniel Ricciardo and as the others realized that there was already a lane to roll, the rest followed him.
Red Bull gained some advantage from the changes, as Leclerc was powerless to pass Perez, while things weren’t changing much behind either. In fact, the race was stretched to the point that one of the pictures from the race was produced: Verstappen lapping an impotent Hamilton. Quite a symptom of the situation of Mercedes.
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What few expected is that the great change of the race would come from the leader of the World Championship.
Leclerc’s blunder
Charles Leclerc had been asking for the strategy to be changed for several laps. The objective was an ‘undercut’ to Sergio Perez, so with 13 laps to go he finally asked to enter ‘Plan D’. The idea was to mount soft tires and try to get to ‘Checo’ (and even fight for the fastest lap).
Red Bull reacted by covering up and although Leclerc passed Norris relatively easily, who took third position momentarily for this stop, in the end a driving error sent him away. The Monegasque ended up against the wall and, although he was able to rejoin, he was only able to come back to 6th place.
In the end, Norris found himself in 3rd place and Red Bull secured a memorable one-two capped off by a perfect weekend from Max Verstappen, who scored a possible 34 points.
Time Table Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Race
Photos: Red Bull Racing