Formula 1 in Italy: Verstappen’s master class for the Red Bull anniversary

In Triumphpose, Max Verstappen climbed to his winning car and accepted the ovations for his imola masterpiece. The Formula 1 champion crowned the 400th Grand Prix of its Red Bull team in the retired company car with its fourth success in the Emilia-Romagna one after the other. Already at the start, the Dutchman had dubbed the Oscar Piatri world leader. The Australian McLaren driver finally had to be satisfied with third place, second was his stable rival Lando Norris.

“I am incredibly proud of us, it was an incredibly important week for us,” said Verstappen after his impressive counterattack in the title race. Thanks to his 65th career win, the 27-year-old is only 22 points on Piatri thanks to his 65th career win. “Really disappointing, it wasn’t our best day,” said the World Cup leader, who has 13 points ahead of Norris before the classic in Monaco.

Verstappen surprises Piatri in curve one

A serious accident by Verstappen’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda had caused a big moment in qualification the day before. On his second round, the Japanese lost control, his car lifted off in the gravel bed, turned in the air and crashed into the route limit. Tsunoda climbed out of the wreck without major injuries. With a night shift, the Red Bull mechanics rebuilt the destroyed car and enabled the 25-year-old to start.

At the very front parked Piatri for the third time at the start of the European tour this season, who had pushed off the pole position shortly before the end of the starting point hunt. When the traffic lights went out, the defending champion returned in the first curve. With an ice -cold maneuver, Verstappen squeezed past the apparently surprised Piatri and took the lead. “I just slowed down too early,” known Piatri.

After the very mixed start of the season, Red Bull had screwed many fresh components to the car in order to curb the gap to the recently dominant McLaren. After the training rounds, Verstappen said: “We are just not fast enough.” But this turned out to be tactical understatement.

The Dutchman kept Piatri in chess on the first rounds and forced the McLaren command stand to change strategy. Piatri came to change the tire at an early stage, but first had to work through the field when he was chase. That cost the 24-year-old valuable seconds. So Verstappen was able to check the race at the front and delay his pit stop.

Ferrari not victorious in the home game

At the top, many of the tens of thousands of fans in the stands had wished for a red car. But the Ferrari are currently far from victory. Only started from eleven and twelve, Charles Leclerc and newcomer Lewis Hamilton improved significantly during his first Ferrari home game in the race and finished fourth (Hamilton) and Sixest (Leclerc). A small lifting for the car brings at least hope for improvement.

The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari also cheered about the apprentice of magic Kimi Antonelli. The Italian, which was only 18 years old, grew up in nearby Bologna and led his school class through the paddock. After the training on Friday, his Mercedes team lasagna was given according to the family recipe of the Antonellis. On the route, however, there was little reason to be happy, a defect ended his working day prematurely.

Previously, the virtual safety car had braked the drivers because the Frenchman Esteban Ocon had to park his defective Haas racing car on the edge of the route. Verstappen benefited from this, who lost so much less from his lead when changing tires.

Safety car makes it exciting again

McLaren reacted a little later, Piatri brought the garage for the second time. This was now huge. Everything indicated a walk from the world champion to the target flag.

But after Antonelli’s failure, the race management ordered the safety car onto the slopes and made it close again. With the much fresher tires, Verstappen could no longer be stopped. At the restart, he immediately pulled away and got the wages deserved.