Hamilton recovered from an early mishap to finish second, McLaren’s Norris took third.
IMOLA, Italy—A temporary light shower along with two safety cars and a red flag period did not stop Max Verstappen from taking his 11th Grand Prix win Sunday in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the Circuit Enzo and Dino Ferrari. Recovering from an earlier spin at Tosa corner, Lewis Hamilton took second 22 seconds behind, while McLaren received their first podium of the season with Lando Norris in third.
Max Verstappen: It was very challenging out there, and it was tough to stay in check. And, of course, the tires degrading it was never the right moment to go onto slicks. I think we managed everything well. I surprised myself at the start just coming on the limit line, and we made that better, and we did a great job
Despite his finishing second, Hamilton is still ahead in the Driver’s championship–one point ahead of Verstappen–thanks to his fastest lap of the race. “On my side, it was not the greatest of days, the first time I had made a mistake in a long time,” admitted Hamilton. “There was only one dry line. There was just too much water. I tried to stop, and the car would not stop and sent me off. It was a bit unfortunate, but I am very grateful that I got going again.”
Verstappen began the race in third but quickly took the lead, passing Hamilton and his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, to the first chicane at Tamburello. Verstappen barely just squeezed past the world champion but, in the process, touched Hamilton, which resulted in a small amount of bodywork damage on the Mercedes.
But it did not take long for the wet track to cause trouble as Nicholas Latifi was hit by Haas driver Nikita Mazepin at Agua Minerali, sending the Canadian into the wall and bringing out the first safety car. And another accident happened not long after–between Valtteri Bottas and George Russell–on lap 29 on the way down to Tamberello to bring out the second safety car. But with debris all over the track, the race itself was finally red-flagged for a half hour.
Verstappen had no problems after the restart. Both he and Hamilton traded leads until both were on slick tires, which finally gave Verstappen the lead for good–a 22-second margin ahead of the Briton thanks to Hamilton’s mistake at Tosa. But Hamilton worked his way up for a second, thankfully bypassing Norris’s laps from the end for a second.
Norris felt that there was no chance to challenge the Mercedes driver. “I am happy. It was a nice recovery after yesterday,” he said. “The race was a tough one, and it was a tough start, but I came back through. I tried to hang on to second, but Lewis (Hamilton) was a bit too quick for me. It was nice to be fighting these guys and being on merit, and I hope there will be more in the future.”
Despite a tough day, both home Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr., took fourth and fifth, respectively, while Daniel Ricciardo gave McLaren double points by finishing in sixth. Lance Stroll took seventh in his Aston Martin, and Pierre Gasly was eighth in the Alpha Tauri. Kimi Raikkonen took ninth in the Alfa Romeo, with Esteban Ocon finishing tenth for the first point of the season for himself and his Alpine team.
The F1 season resumes in two weeks in Portimao, Portugal, for round three of the championship.
