Max Verstappen has surged to an impressive second victory of the season at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, the Dutchman having snatched P1 at the start before holding his position ahead of the McLaren pair in an eventful afternoon.
The race got underway in an exciting fashion as polesitter, Oscar Piastri initially launched well off the line – only for Verstappen to make a stunning overtake through the Tamburello chicane, resulting in the World Champion going on to build a lead in the laps that followed.
Piastri then joined a number of drivers who made an early pit stop, having stopped for the hard compound on Lap 14, but the call did not seem to work out the Australian.
As questions persisted over whether a one-stop or two-stop strategy was the way forward – with around half of the field remaining out following that earlier flurry of action in the pits for the other half.
The full top 10 are- P1: Verstappen, P2: Norris, P3: Piastri, P4: Hamilton, P5: Albon, P6: Leclerc, P7: Russell, P8: Sainz, P9: Hadjar and P10: Tsunoda.
What a result from Max Verstappen, a cool, calm and collected drive from the Dutchman. His strategy was spot on, and he didn’t fall for McLaren pitting Piastri early.
As for his teammate, Tsunoda made up some good places from starting in the pit lane to finishing P10 and coming home with a point.
A double podium for McLaren, P2 for Norris and P3 for Piastri. A lovely result for the team, it’s a shame it wasn’t a win for the Papaya team, but Verstappen just ran away with the lead and there was no chance of battling him for it. But still a very good points haul for the team.
A lovely result from Hamilton! P4 for the Brit and it was his first Italian race as a Ferrari driver and he made up for a bad qualifying session.
As for Leclerc his race wasn’t the best, he ran into quite a few problems along the road but he still managed to finish P6. Overall a decent points haul for the team.
P5 for Albon! What a great result from him! At one point, it almost looked like he was nearing the podium. But the main thing to take from that great result is how much they have improved! Sainz finished P8 aswell, so a very good weekend for the team.
P7 for Russell, not the best weekend for him, he was struggling a bit during the race. As well for his teammate, it went from bad to worse, Antonelli pulled over to the side as he had an issue and had to retire from his first home race. A big shame for the young rookie but he will bounce back.
Now we don’t have to wait too long for the next race as we are at the second race weekend of a triple header and we are headed to Monaco!
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