IMOLA – Max Verstappen isn't about to let Oscar Piastri and McLaren walk away with his Formula 1 title.
The defending champion ended Piastri's three-race win streak and gave his title defense a big boost with victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday after a daring overtake on Piastri at the start.
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Piastri and his teammate Lando Norris — whose McLaren car has been the one to beat so far this season — had no real answer to the pace of Verstappen's Red Bull after that.
Verstappen built a commanding lead which was wiped out when the safety car bundled the field back up and injected more drama into the race late on. He still held on to win ahead of Norris, who overtook Piastri for second with five laps remaining.
Verstappen took his second win of the season, the first win since last month’s Japanese Grand Prix, and his fourth in a row at Imola.
Verstappen praised Red Bull's “fantastic execution all round” as the team marked its 400th F1 race with a win.
“The start itself wasn’t particularly great, but I was still on the outside line, or basically the normal (racing) line, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m just going to try and send it round the outside,’ and it worked really well," Verstappen said of his crucial overtake. "That, of course, unleashed our pace because once we were in the lead, the car was good.”
It was also a clean overtake after Verstappen's aggressive style brought controversy at the last two races in Saudi Arabia and Miami.
Norris' late-race move on Piastri was almost a copy of Verstappen's, though Norris had the advantage of being on fresher tires than his teammate.
“We had a good little battle at the end between Oscar and myself, which is always tense, but always good fun,” Norris said, admitting that Verstappen and Red Bull were “too good for us today.”
Piastri's lead over Norris in the standings was cut to 13 points, with Verstappen nine behind Norris.
Hamilton bounces back
Lewis Hamilton recovered from 12th on the grid to finish fourth in his first race for Ferrari in Italy.
Hamilton profited from a late-race fight between his teammate Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon of Williams.
Albon complained Leclerc had pushed him off the track as they battled for fourth, and Hamilton passed both drivers before Ferrari eventually asked Leclerc to yield fifth to Albon.
George Russell was seventh for Mercedes, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Jr. in the second Williams. Isack Hadjar was ninth for Racing Bulls and Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda was 10th after starting last following a crash in qualifying.
An action-packed ‘farewell’ to Imola
Overtaking was expected to be rare in what could be F1’s last race for the foreseeable future at Imola. Instead, the Italian fans were treated to Verstappen’s spectacular move at the start and plenty of other overtakes.
The narrow, bumpy Imola track has been a favorite among drivers, who have relished its old-school challenge since it returned to the F1 schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, its status as Italy’s second race — only the United States also hosts more than one — makes its position vulnerable.
Sunday’s race was the last under Imola’s current contract, and while it isn’t officially goodbye yet, there has been no word about next year.
Verstappen said it would be “a shame” to lose a track like Imola.
“If you want to grow the business and make it more popular, I get it," he said. "From me personally, when I just speak about the enjoyment of driving, it’s these kind of tracks that made me fall in love with racing in general.”
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