Max Verstappen already knows what it is to suffer to win. At the legendary Imola, the Dutchman suffered first-hand harassment from Lando Norris’s McLaren – who already beat him in Miami in the previous GP – in order to take his fifth victory of the course. Without a doubt, the most suffered of all. His incontestable dominance at the beginning of the year seems like history; the three-time champion is human again.
“I had to push hard to open a gap at the beginning and in the last 10 laps I no longer had grip, I couldn’t allow myself to make mistakes. “It has been hard,” commented Verstappen.
Completing the podium was Charles Leclerc, the first Ferrari driver to step onto the Imola podium since Michael Schumacher in 2006. Carlos Sainz achieved a discreet fifth place and Fernando Alonso was second to last (19th).
The departure from Imola did not bring any news. Verstappen closed well in the first corner against the harassment of Norris, this of Leclerc, and none of the pursuers committed suicide. Prudence was imposed so as not to ruin the race in the first lap and the same positions at the top of the grid were maintained, with the four wolves -Norris, Leclerc, Sainz, Piastri- behind the leader, smelling the first fragilities of the Red Bull.
Finally, Fernando Alonso started from the pit-lane (classifying 19th) in order to introduce changes to his Aston Martin that would allow him to introduce parts of the new aerodynamic package. The Asturian remained last, since it was difficult for him to link up with Sargeant for a lap.
In the early stages of the race the speed of the two McLarens was evident. Piastri, suspended three positions (from 2nd to 5th), bit Sainz, who had to go into defensive mode to protect himself from the Australian (v. 8/63). The man from Madrid was very far behind Leclerc (2s away) keeping an eye on Piastri in the rearview mirror.
At the front, without incident: Verstappen, with clean air, moved away lap by lap, more than 6s over Norris (v. 21/63), while Leclerc could not follow the McLaren closely (1.7s), a the time when Sainz was moving away from his teammate by 4s.
The stops came from lap 23 for the front cars. Norris was the first, and had the bad luck, or bad calculation, to return to the track behind Pérez. But it only took the Englishman one lap to get the Mexican out of the way and return to virtual second place. Piastri immediately stopped trying to undercut Sainz.
Four laps later the man from Madrid stopped and emerged onto the track, effectively, behind the Australian from McLaren, and also the Red Bull of Pérez, in 6th position. A bad deal for Carlos, who two laps later could at least recover the position with the Mexican to place 5th.
Having passed the halfway point of the race (v. 32/63), Piastri wanted to become the leader of the front group. Having left Sainz behind at the stop, the Australian jumped on Leclerc’s Ferrari (0.5s away). The attack did not last long because as the laps fell with the hard tire, it was the Monegasque’s Ferrari who got dangerously close to Norris’s McLaren chasing second place.
Leclerc was threatening 9 tenths behind Norris (v. 45/63) and Sainz was also closing in on Piastri. The two Ferraris did well with the low degradation of their tires.
However, the excitement would come ahead, when it was least expected: Verstappen began to lap slower laps than usual and lost part of the great advantage he had over Norris in the last stretch of the race. The Englishman from McLaren came within just 4.3 seconds of the Dutchman with 11 laps remaining; In just three laps he had shaved 1.7 seconds off. A lot to be the champion.
The hunt went further. Norris gritted his teeth and Verstappen saw the wolf’s ears; In one lap he lost 1 second, he had the McLaren at 2.1s with seven laps remaining (v. 56/63). Danger for the champion, who became desperate with the doubled ones.
The McLaren was a real threat to Red Bull. Norris had already visually contacted the leader with five laps remaining; he had it only 1.4 seconds away (v. 58/63). And Max also had the threat of track limits: he could not leave the track if he did not want to receive a 5-second penalty that would make him lose the race. Maximum pressure for the three-time champion, who saw problems everywhere. “The battery is almost empty,” he reported to his team by radio with three laps remaining.
With two laps remaining, the tension was cut with a knife: Norris was on top of the Red Bull, 1 second away, with the possibility of opening the DRS. They started the last lap with 8-9 tenths of a difference. The Englishman advanced like a cheetah on the gazelle. 7 tenths of distance. But he ran out of turns and couldn’t hit him. He had put the three-time champion on the ropes.
