Max Verstappen wins Emilia Romagna GP after superb early move on Oscar Piastri
The Dutchman was in control but had to see off a late challenge, after a safety car slashed his lead, to clinch his second win of the season.
Max Verstappen’s brilliant opening-corner move on Oscar Piastri fired him to victory at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The Dutchman clinched a fourth successive win at Imola in Red Bull’s 400th race to end championship leader Piastri’s three-race winning run after taking the lead at the first chicane.
Verstappen was in control of the race but had to see off a late challenge, after a safety car slashed his lead, to clinch his second win of the season.
McLaren opted not to order Piastri to allow Lando Norris past in a bid to challenge Verstappen but the British driver ultimately made a brave move on his team-mate with five laps to go to finish second.
Piastri’s lead to Norris was cut to 13 points, with Verstappen now 22 points behind the Australian.
Ferrari recovered from a dismal qualifying – starting 11th and 12th – with Lewis Hamilton fourth in his first home race for the Scuderia and Charles Leclerc sixth.
Verstappen launched a fearless move around the outside of the opening chicane, catching pole-sitter Piastri out as he surged through on the inside of Tamburello to take the lead.
Russell had briefly edged ahead of Verstappen but found himself trapped behind Piastri and could only watch on as the Dutchman pulled off his scintillating overtake.
Norris, who again bemoaned his qualifying performance which left him fourth on the grid, could make little in the way of inroads in the early stages but began to threaten Russell on lap nine.
The McLaren driver piled the pressure onto his compatriot, with Russell’s determined defence breached on lap 11 as Norris braved it out around the outside of the Villeneuve chicane to claim third.
Piastri was the the first of the front-runners to pit, also coming in on lap 11 and emerging 12th after a sluggish 3.6-second stop.
That committed the Australian to a two-stop as Verstappen stayed out and Norris was also told to “go long”.
Norris came in on lap 29 and rejoined seventh before the race was shaken up as Esteban Ocon triggered a virtual safety car by stopping on track.
That was a gift for Verstappen. Piastri was second, ahead of Norris, but came in the following lap for his second stop and rejoined fourth, 10 seconds behind Norris with Albon up to third.
Verstappen had doubled his lead over Norris to almost 20 seconds when the race resumed.
Leclerc’s progress after an early stop was damaged by the VSC as he blasted “I always get ****** by the safety car”.
Verstappen looked set to cruise to victory but the race was turned upside down again as Kimi Antonelli broke down with 17 laps to go to bring out a full safety car.
Norris pitted and was jumped by Piastri, who did not. Leclerc also stayed out to line up fourth, ahead of Alex Albon, George Russell and Hamilton as the race resumed.
With Piastri on older tyres, Norris was soon on the radio asking for a shot at challenging Verstappen.
“If we want any chance of going for the lead, we know what to do,” he said.
The race resumed with nine laps to go and Verstappen blasted clear again.
Piastri fought Norris hard but a superb move at turn three gave Norris second.
A packed crowd of 242,000 mostly Ferrari fans were thrilled as Albon ran off the track in a tussle with Leclerc and Hamilton moved up to fourth, with Leclerc ultimately finishing behind the Williams after allowing him through.
Russell came home seventh for Mercedes.
