Max Verstappen won the 2024 Emilia Romagna GP. Put like this, it might seem like the usual boring race for two years now but, this time, the Dutchman’s victory was earned by the famous seven shirts. Thanks to a great Lando Norris and a fantastic McLaren.
After winning in Miami, the Englishman returned to Imola with a masterful performance. In the second stint, on hard tyres, after having repelled Charles Leclerc’s attack, Norris began to recover tenths on the leading Red Bull who, for over six and a half seconds, saw their lead inexorably diminish.
The last ten laps of the race were cinematic. A few tenths at a time, Norris fell behind with a pace that was unsustainable even by Verstappen, who complained several times that he no longer had anything to ask of his tires. At the end, the Englishman lacked the opportunity to grab the DRS in the last two or three passes, which would have allowed him to at least attempt an attack.
McLaren thus finished second only on the last lap. Norris tried in any way to get close to Verstappen who, however, did not make half a mistake and managed to reach the finish line with a seven-tenths advantage over his friend but rival on the track. For Verstappen it is the 59th victory of his career, the fifth of this season. With this, the Dutchman rises to 30.73% of career victories, thus surpassing Lewis Hamilton (30.38%) after overtaking Michael Schumacher, stuck at 29.64%.
Ferrari leaves Imola with a bit of a bad taste in their mouth. The updates brought to Emilia Romagna were not enough to get the better of McLaren, even if the gap to Red Bull was narrowed. Charles Leclerc finished on the podium, 7 seconds behind the leading pair, ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri. The Australian battled at the beginning of his stints first with Sainz and then with Leclerc, without then having the pace to fight with the Ferraris. Carlos Sainz’s race was a bit overshadowed, as he finished in fifth place, almost 15 seconds behind his teammate.
Lonely race for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton finished in sixth place after an error and after inheriting the position from George Russell, who made an additional pit stop at the end of the race and arrived behind his teammate. The first Mercedes was 35 seconds behind Verstappen’s Red Bull.
Eighth position for Sergio Pérez with the second Red Bull, which in turn was the protagonist of an error and a subpar race, after starting with the opposite strategy from eleventh position. Lance Stroll saved Aston Martin’s weekend, finishing well in ninth place ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard, who started from the pitlane, finished in last place after trying in vain to set the fastest lap at the end.
VISA Cash App RB closed the home match with one point, that of Yuki Tsunoda who thus completed another positive weekend. The only one from the race, Alex Albon, retired.
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The race started regularly, without any shocks in the top positions apart from Hamilton’s overtaking of Tsunoda, with Verstappen pulling away from Norris, Leclerc, Sainz and Piastri apparently faster than the Ferrari. The race continued without upheavals until the end of the first stint and the pit stops.
With the switch to hard tires and the only change of Piastri passing in front of Carlos Sainz, the dynamics changed. After initially defending himself from Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris began to make up ground on Verstappen until he recovered the more than seven second gap from the Dutchman.
The final laps were heart-pounding, with the Englishman arriving right at the end behind the Red Bull without, however, being able to attempt to overtake for the victory.
Verstappen rises to 161 points ahead of Charles Leclerc, who overtakes Sergio Pérez with 113 points against 107. Lando Norris rises to 101 ahead of Sainz (93) and Piastri (53). In the Constructors’ category, Red Bull rises to 268 points against Ferrari’s 212 and McLaren’s 154.
The race ranking follows.
SOURCE: P300.it
