Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – Sprint: Verstappen dominates in the final laps

It was a very difficult start for Max Verstappen. The Dutchman, starting in first place, was overtaken by his rival, Charles Leclerc, right after the lights went out. The reigning world champion even came close to being overtaken by the McLaren of Lando Norris.

Even before the end of the first lap, the race was interrupted by the safety car following a collision between Pierre Gasly and Guanyu Zhou at the 9th turn. On the 4th lap, the race restarted with no changes in the hierarchy.

Leclerc wasn’t the only one gaining positions. His garage neighbor at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, gained two positions at the end of the first lap before overtaking Fernando Alonso’s Alpine to take 7th place. Later in the race, the Spaniard got rid of Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo to claim 5th position. Finally, after overtaking Lando Norris, Carlos Sainz magnificently made up for his qualifying mistake, finishing in 4th place.

Further up, at the front of the race, it was Sergio Perez who took third place from Lando Norris with an overtaking maneuver on the main straight.

In the final moments of the race, Max Verstappen managed to achieve the feat of overtaking Charles Leclerc using the DRS. The Monegasque was losing a lot of pace due to significant tire degradation for the Ferrari driver. The numerous slides from both drivers showed just how much they were pushing their cars. It was on the penultimate lap of the race that Verstappen took back the lead before securing the victory.

Tomorrow’s race promises a new showdown at the top between the two Red Bull and Ferrari drivers.

Results table