Max Verstappen has returned to winning ways after missing out in Miami by taking victory in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
Despite a difficult day in the car on Friday, Verstappen bounced back in Saturday’s qualifying to claim his eighth consecutive pole position, putting him just ahead of the McLaren pair of Piastri and Norris.
However, a three-place grid drop was handed to Piastri after the session as the Australian was found to have impeded the Haas of Magnussen during Q1, pushing him down to P5 on the grid. This in turn promoted Norris to the front row, while the Ferrari duo also moved up to the second.
Alonso, meanwhile, was set to start from the pit lane due to late set-up changes being made to the suspension on his Aston Martin, compounding a difficult weekend so far for the Spaniard after he originally qualified down in 19th place.
As the cars assembled on the grid at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, it was confirmed that the majority of the field would be starting on the medium tires, while Alonso and Gasly had bolted on the softs and Perez, Sargeant and Zhou were all running the hard compound for an expected one-stop encounter.
Verstappen and Norris made equally solid launches when the lights went out for the 63-lap event, but it was polesitter Verstappen who then drew clear. While Norris potentially found himself at risk from the Ferraris, the top six ultimately held position on a clean first lap.
IMOLA, ITALY - MAY 19: Race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 takes the chequered flag during the F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit on May 19, 2024 in Imola, Italy. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202405190537 // Usage for editorial use only //
IMOLA, ITALY - MAY 19: Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the (1) Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna at Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit on May 19, 2024 in Imola, Italy. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images) // Getty Images / Red Bull Content Pool // SI202405190395 // Usage for editorial use only //
A thrilling end to the event ensued as Norris continued to cut into Verstappen’s advantage, but a snap of oversteer seemed to take further life out of the McLaren driver’s aging tires, allowing the Red Bull to hold onto P1 by just 0.725s as the checkered flag was waved.
Despite looking to be on Norris’s tail in the fight for P2 earlier in the event, Charles Leclerc had to settle for the final podium position of third in front of Ferrari’s home fans, while Oscar Piastri claimed P4 in a solid drive for McLaren.
Carlos Sainz added to Ferrari’s points tally by claiming fifth place, ahead of Lewis Hamilton in a lonely sixth for Mercedes followed by his team mate George Russell in seventh, who had made a surprise late pit stop for medium tires allowing him to claim the extra point for fastest lap.
Sergio Perez salvaged P8 for Red Bull after a difficult qualifying saw him start the race in P11, with Lance Stroll taking Aston Martin’s only points in ninth. Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top-10 after a racy drive in the RB.
The Haas pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen followed in 11th and 12th respectively, despite the former running in the top 10 earlier on and the latter engaging in a few battles to work his way through the field.
RB’s Daniel Ricciardo crossed the line in P13, dropping back from P9 on the grid, with the lead Alpine of Esteban Ocon following in P14 ahead of Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu in P15.
Pierre Gasly ended the day in 16th place for Alpine, having been one of just two drivers to start the race on the soft tyre. Williams’ Logan Sargeant was just behind in 17th, while Valtteri Bottas rounded out the finishers in 18th place.
Fernando Alonso had spent much of the afternoon running near the rear of the pack in what has been a challenging weekend for the Spaniard. He retired his Aston Martin in the latter stages, classifying him in P19.
The only other retiree was Alex Albon, who was forced to retire his Williams earlier in the Grand Prix.
“It was a close race today. I didn’t expect that the car would have that kind of pace at the beginning, which was nice and we were strong on the medium tires. When we swapped to the hard tires, it was a bit trickier to drive and more of a struggle to bring it to the end as tires fell out of the operating window and we had really low grip. I saw Lando closing in, so the last 10 laps I was just flat out. It’s very difficult when the tires are not working anymore and you have to go flat-out. I couldn’t afford to make too many mistakes, but it required a lot of focus as we were on the limit with the penalty. Luckily we didn’t. However, we managed to work through and take the win; I was definitely counting down the laps until the end and it was a great feeling when we took the checkered flag! If you look at where we were at the beginning of the weekend, this was an extremely good result. There is a bit of work to do and things to analyze but we are looking forward to Monaco.”