Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix: Max Verstappen wins despite extreme pressure from Lando Norris

The lights go out and Max Verstappen sets off alongside Lando Norris, the Brit pulling off a very good start. The Ferraris follow behind, while Sergio Perez quickly found an opening at the back to gain a small position, 10th. Lewis Hamilton gained a position. Everyone remains very calm in these first corners and during the first lap, single file cars. But Lance Stroll seems to have made contact with a car. Lewis Hamilton gained a position and Nico Hülkenberg two.

Oscar Piastri is getting closer to the Ferraris and especially to Carlos Sainz, McLaren confirming its great form in Miami. The Spaniard also points out on the radio that the papaya car is very fast, while the Australian appears in his mirrors. Up front, Max Verstappen is pulling away 1.8 seconds from Lando Norris.

A loose wheel on Albon’s Williams.

At turn 9, the first pit stops take place, including Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly. But the Thai’s Williams seems to have a problem, he slows down on the track and indicates on the radio that the wheel has been improperly attached. This suggests a heavy penalty. He lets his pursuers pass at very low speed on the track until he reaches the pits again. He is under investigation for an unsafe release and will ultimately receive a 10-second penalty.

Setback also occurred during Fernando Alonso’s pit stop, with his front left tire brake disc briefly catching fire before the Spaniard got back on track. Yuki Tsunoda managed to undercut Nico Hülkenberg, a good strategy at V-CARB.

Sergio Pérez makes a mistake in the gravel due to understeer, costing him a few seconds on the 17th lap, while he is only in 8th place. The weekend remains complicated for the Mexican, who qualified behind the two cars of the V-CARB sister team. Meanwhile, Oscar Piastri does not give up on Carlos Sainz, even though he struggles to overtake him. At the front, Max Verstappen bounces on a kerb, but it doesn’t worry him, as he is more than six seconds ahead of Lando Norris and in a good rhythm at Imola.

Lando Norris’s frustration

It seems that the choice of drivers who stopped early to put on hard tires is not very wise, as they lack pace on the cars with medium tires.

Norris returns to the pit on the 23rd lap and comes back out just behind Sergio Perez, in 7th position. A bad move for McLaren, who now has to pass Red Bull and could therefore lose its second place to Charles Leclerc…But the British driver overtakes him without wasting time to climb back up the pack as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, George Russell overtakes Esteban Ocon with the help of DRS.

Surprise as we reach the 24th lap: Max Verstappen receives a black and white flag for exceeding track limits. He no longer has any margin for error and must remain focused if he wants to avoid a penalty. The Dutch driver enters the pit stop at the same time to change to hard tires and comes out in 4th position, behind Hamilton and ahead of Lando Norris. The leading Ferraris and Hamilton still have to make a pit stop, and that’s exactly what Leclerc does on lap 26, also switching to hard tires. He comes out behind Perez in 6th place, as the Mexican driver has not yet stopped. However, the Monegasque driver quickly overtakes Perez, followed by Piastri, leaving Perez behind.

Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton (who also went off into the gravel), in the lead, go to the pit stop at the same time, handing the lead to Max Verstappen, followed by Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri. It remains to be seen if this ranking will remain unchanged until the finish line.

We are halfway through the race and entering the mid-pack of this Sunday, with the time gaps remaining relatively stable in the top 10. Fortunately, a radio exchange from Lando Norris keeps us awake: the British driver is asking why he is much slower than the drivers behind him, to which his team replies that they are degrading their tires much more than him… And he retorts that he has no pace, even though he is matching the pace of Verstappen and Leclerc. Lando Norris seems frustrated that he cannot catch up to the Dutchman six seconds ahead of him, after his victory in Miami two weeks ago. But everything is still to play for. Later, McLaren asks him to pick up the pace as Leclerc is improving his times behind.

A beautiful battle Hamilton – Perez

At the rear, Perez is defending with all his might against Lewis Hamilton who is trying to take 7th place from him to get closer to his teammate, 8 seconds ahead of him. The Imola circuit allows for solid defenses, while overtaking can be tricky at certain parts of the track. But the Briton eventually gets the better of the Mexican, and Red Bull calls him to the pit at the end of the 38th lap. Perez puts on the medium tires, one of the few as the vast majority of the grid is on hard tires.

Further, it heats up between Kevin Magnussen who tries to overtake Guanyu Zhou, but cannot find a window… until the 49th lap. Leclerc is also closing in on Norris, less than a second behind and thus enters the DRS window. A very serious threat to Lando Norris, while Ferrari whispers to the Monegasque that he is the fastest on track, on the 44th lap. At the front, Max Verstappen seems to have a clear path to win this Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. At the same time, Leclerc makes a mistake and goes straight into the grass, pushing him back to 2 seconds behind Lando Norris.

It’s also moving with Lance Stroll entering the points and even managing to take 9th place ahead of Yuki Tsunoda and Nico Hülkenberg. A winning strategy for the Canadian.

Lando Norris is getting closer to Max Verstappen.

And at the front too, we finally get some suspense when Verstappen’s engineer signals to him that he is losing ground to Norris on turns 2 and 7, while the Dutchman complains about his tires. McLaren informs Norris of this exchange, but the Briton, focused, asks to be left alone, as we are only 10 laps away from the end. The two cars have the same pace on track, Verstappen is asked to stay focused on the track limits, since Lando Norris is now less than 5 seconds behind. In case of another track limits violation, the Dutchman would receive a 5-second penalty, which would therefore give the victory to his pursuer.

Surprise: George Russell makes a second pit stop, conceding a position to his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who are now in 6th and 7th place, respectively. Further on, Williams finally concedes Alex Albon’s retirement, whose race was spoiled by his improperly fixed tire and penalty.

But it’s at the front that things are happening, with Lando Norris increasing the pace and gradually catching up with Max Verstappen, with a very good performance from the tires. The Dutchman still has to hold on for 8 laps and seems quite stressed, under pressure from the McLaren, which is closing in at just two seconds. This is warmly encouraging Lando Norris in the stands, who drops below the two-second mark on the 57th lap. The gap continues to decrease between the two cars. The British driver is giving it his all to try to steal the victory from the Dutchman, undoubtedly galvanized by his win in Miami.

With two laps to go, Verstappen informs his team that his battery is almost empty, as he struggles to maintain his first position. At the same time, Norris is close to going under a second behind Verstappen, the suspense is at its peak. But the world champion will hold on until the end to win this Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, just 7 tenths ahead of Lando Norris and followed by Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz. George Russell takes the point for the fastest lap in the race.

The classification of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix