Verstappen took Victory in Imola, moving him into 1 point of Hamilton in the standings. Hamilton recovered to a stunning 2nd after a rare mistake while Norris continued his strong form throughout the weekend to take his second podium.
Before the race, localised rain fell, taking away the tyre obligations from qualifying. Vettel started from the pits as his brakes ignited while Alonso tore off his front wing on the way to the grid. He was able to get it replaced before the start.
Championship Battle
It was a lightning start for Verstappen, who was able to overtake Hamilton into the first corner. The two touched, sending Hamilton over the kerbs, but behind, Perez was not able to take advantage. In the midfield, numerous incidents took place. Sainz and Latifi were unable to keep their cars on the track. This led to contact between Latifi and Mazepin, the Williams careeining into the barriers and bringing out the safety car before the end of the first lap.
During the safety car, a few drivers chose to pit as more rain appeared to fall. During this time Schumacher spun warming his tyres, ripping off his front wing.
The safety car came in on lap 6, Hamilton attempted a move for the lead but was unable to make it stick. Behind, Leclerc immediatley made his presence known. By the end of the lap, Verstappen had a lead of over 3s.
Chaotic battles
Norris was making superb moves in the midfield, with 3 supreme overtakes taking him back to 6th. He trailed Riccardo for a few laps before team orders moved him in front.
On lap 12 Perez received a 10s time penalty for overtaking under the safety car. A promising weekend was drastically falling apart.
As the race entered lap 20, it became a waiting game for who would blink first for slicks. Vettel was first to bolt on the softs but didn’t light up the timings. To add insult to injury, he also received news of a penalty for fitting the tyres too late at the beginning of the race.
Hamilton started to catch Verstappen at an incredibly fast rate, despite his 27 lap old tyres. This caused Verstappen to risk pitting while Hamilton stayed out. However, the Briton pitted on the next lap as the softs were obviously preferable. Hamilton’s slow stop and wheelspin out of the box meant Verstappen sailed pass into the first corner.
This led to a wave of pitstops as almost everybody went on to the mediums.
Mercedes fall apart.
However, calamity was about to take over the session. Hamilton locked up and collided with the barrier in turn 6. He was able to reverse back onto the track, but lost an incredible amount of time and places. But, it was not yet over for Mercedes. Bottas and Russell came together in a huge collision. The two were fighting for 9th place. Russell was visibly aggrevated and confronted Bottas before he was able to get out of his car. The massive amount of debris brought out the red flags.
At the restart Verstappen lined up ahead of Leclerc, Norris, Perez, Sainz and Ricciardo, Hamilton had fallen back to 9th.
Due to the wet conditions, the race restarted as a rolling start, but Verstappen almost threw it away, going sideways through the last corner.
As the green flags were waved Norris managed to take Leclerc into turn 1, while behind, Tsunoda spiun off after a brief battle with Hamilton. While chasing Leclerc for 3rd, Perez spun off and was relegated to 14th. This promoted Sainz and Ricciardo to 4th and 5th respectively. However, Hamilton was charging and quickly dispacted Ricciardo for 5th on lap 42.
Tense ending
Norris had restarted on the soft tyre and after 10 laps Leclerc, Sainz and Hamilton were starting to reel him in. Hamilton was the first to make a move, taking Sainz into turn one on his second attempt. It took longer for Hamilton to take Leclerc, who was benefitting from the DRS of Norris.
As Verstappen’s lead continued to extend, Norris and Hamilton began a tense fight for 2nd. Hamilton was well within DRS territory, but the Mercedes engine in the McLaren was able to keep him at bay.
After 5 attempts, Hamilton finally managed to force himself past going into turn 1. Norris now had to defend from Leclerc in 3rd. Hamilton immediately took the fastest lap from Verstappen, giving him an all important point.
The cars remained in formation over the tense final laps, taking Verstappen to within a point of the championship lead. Hamilton had supreme recovery to finish 2nd ahead of an incredible performance from Norris, who recieved driver of the day in the process. The two Ferraris followed taking a strong double points finish ahead of Ricciardo who just managed to defend 6th from Stroll. Respectable performances from Gasly, Raikkonen and Ocon rounded out the top 10.
The championship fight is now heating up only 2 races in. Hamilton has the slimmest advantage, but Mercedes and Red Bull seem incredibly close in performance. The next dramatric twist will take place in two weeks at the Portuguese Grand Prix.
- Verstappen
- Hamilton +22.000
- Norris +23.702
- Leclerc +25.579
- Sainz +27.036
- Ricciardo +51.220
- Stroll +51.909
- Gasly +52.818
- Raikkonen +64.773
- Ocon +65.704
- Alonso +66.651
- Perez +67.151
- Tsunoda +73.184
- Giovinazzi +1L
- Vettel RET
- Schumacher +2L
- Mazepin +2L
- Bottas RET
- Russell RET
- Latifi RET
Featured Image Credit: @F1 Official Twitter
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