#EmiliaRomagnaGP: @Max33Verstappen fends-off @LandoNorris to win thrilling race. #F1 #ImolaGP
Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20, celebrates in Parc Ferme after winning the Formula 1 MSC Cruises Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell'Emilia Romagna 2024, Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari,, Imola, Italy. Image credit to Mark Thompson/Getty Images. Verstappen Emilia Romagna Victory, 2024 Emilia Romagna GP, F1 Imola GP Results, Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Results. 2024 Monaco GP Preview, 2024 F1 Monaco GP Preview, Formula 1 Monaco Preview, 2024 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix Preview. 2024 Canadian GP Preview, Canadian GP Preview, 2024 F1 Canadian GP Preview, Formula 1 Grand Prix Du Canada 2024 Preview.
Verstappen Emilia Romagna GP victory – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen held off a fast-charging McLaren of Lando Norris in a final ten lap duel to clinch the Emilia Romagna GP victory as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the top three in the Scuderia’s first home Grand Prix of the season in-front of the Tifosi.
This was Verstappen’s 59th-career victory and third consecutive victory in Imola.
When the 63-lap Emilia Romagna GP began, pole-sitter Verstappen got an even start with second-placed Norris as they headed towards Tamburello as the former held the lead into turn one.
Behind the Dutchman, Norris managed to cover Leclerc into Tamburello to hold second place.
At the end of the opening tour Verstappen’s gap was 0.937 over Norris with Leclerc third, Carlos Sainz fourth, Oscar Piastri fifth as the Mercedes pairing of George Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton completed the top seven.
Second-placed Norris was trying his best to keep up with race-leader Verstappen as the former’s McLaren team calculate undercuts on the pit-wall – Norris was starting to break away from third-placed Leclerc.
On lap five, Verstappen’s lead to Norris was up to 1.649 seconds with Leclerc a further three seconds behind in third, Sainz right behind his Ferrari team-mate in fourth as Piastri rounded out the top five runners.
Behind the leaders, Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg made up some ground running in eighth in-front of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Lap seven saw gaps starting to appear amongst the field, with the top five cleared away, as Russell could not keep up with fifth-placed Piastri, as the two Mercedes were in a race of their own and Hulkenberg was starting to have a train forming behind him.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso pitted on lap nine, switching his C5 softs for hards as Albon, Gasly and Bottas also stopped for fresher rubber.
Williams Racing’s Albon was seen travelling slowly reporting to the team over the radio that his wheel was not put on properly and made his way back to the pits.
Albon switched for a set of mediums and ended up a lap down from the leaders.
On lap 12, Verstappen’s lead increased to 3.006 seconds over Norris with Leclerc third, Sainz fourth as Piastri began to fight the Spaniard for the place into Tamburello.
A tour later, RB’s Tsunoda stopped from eighth after being stuck behind Hulkenberg for a fresh set of the C3 hards and came out in 15th behind Williams’ Logan Sargeant.
Hulkenberg reacted to the Japanese driver a tour later for his fresh set of hards and wound up behind Tsunoda as the undercut worked to perfection for the Faenza based-outfit.
Verstappen’s lead on the 15th lap was 5.097 seconds ahead of Norris with Leclerc third, Sainz fourth as Piastri completed the top five.
On the 17th tour, Piastri started to drop back from fourth-placed Sainz as the Australian got out of the dirty air to not overheat his tyres and was out of DRS range from the Ferrari.
Albon was also under investigation by the stewards for his unsafe release.
Eighth-placed Perez also suffered an off-track excursion into the gravel trap, losing a valuable five seconds to seven-placed Hamilton.
The 21st lap saw Verstappen’s lead up to 6.423 over second-placed Norris with Leclerc third, Sainz fourth as Piastri completed the top five.
Sixth-placed Russell pitted for his fresh set of the C3 hards and emerged in tenth place behind Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who is yet to stop.
Norris pitted from second for his set of the harder compound and came out behind Perez.
Meanwhile Albon was hit with a 10-second time penalty for his unsafe release.
Russell made short work of Ocon on the main straight with DRS assistance to jump into ninth.
Lap 24 saw Piastri stop from fourth to put on his fresh set of hard tyres and came out in eighth behind Stroll.
Norris made his way by Perez with DRS before Tamburello to take fifth place from the Mexican.
The 25th lap saw race leader Verstappen pit for his hards and emerged in fourth behind his 2021 rival Hamilton.
A tour later, Leclerc pitted for his fresh set of the C3 white side-walled compound and returned to the circuit in sixth behind Perez.
Hamilton suffered an off-track excursion into the gravel trap and fell behind the Williams of Albon.
With DRS assistance on the main straight, Leclerc with his fresher rubber, overtook Perez to move up into fifth and Piastri likewise passed the Red Bull driver into Villeneuve.
On lap 28, Sainz pitted from the lead as Hamilton also stopped for their new set of hards and both drivers came out in sixth and ninth respectively.
The 30th tour saw Sainz with DRS assistance on the pit-straight move to the inside of Perez and made the move stick into Tamburello to grab fifth.
Verstappen was 6.500 seconds clear to second-placed Norris on lap 31 with Leclerc holding third, Piastri fourth as Sainz rounded out the top five
Behind them, Russell with DRS assistance also passed Perez on the main-straight just before Tamburello to take sixth place.
On lap 36, the fight for seventh place between Perez and Hamilton intensified as the latter had a look on the Red Bull into Tamburello, but Perez managed to keep the seven-time world champion behind.
However, the next tour Hamilton with DRS assistance got by Perez around the outside before reaching Tamburello to snatch seventh from the Mexican.
A lap later, Perez pitted from eighth for his fresh set of the C4 yellow-branded mediums and emerged in 11th place behind Ricciardo.
Lap 39, in the fight for the final points place, Perez with his fresher mediums got ahead of Ricciardo on the pit-straight to take tenth from the RB driver.
On lap 40, Verstappen’s gap to Norris was up to 6.771 seconds, Leclerc was holding third, Piastri fourth as Sainz completed the top five.
Perez also made short work on Hulkenberg on the main straight with his fresher medium tyre advantage to jump into ninth place.
Lap 42 saw Perez’s charge continue as he moved into eighth place passing Tsunoda around the outside also on the main-straight to grab eighth place.
With 20 tours remaining, Leclerc started eating into second-place Norris. Getting into DRS range of the McLaren.
On lap 44, Leclerc was told over the radio: “You’re the fastest man on track.” Meanwhile, his Ferrari team-mate Sainz was also slowly catching Piastri for fourth.
The 47th tour saw Stroll with DRS assistance make his way ahead of Hulkenberg on the main-straight to move into tenth place.
On lap 48, Leclerc made an error as he bounced straight across the grass at Tosa and fell half-a-second back from Norris giving the McLaren some breathing space.
Leclerc lost a little more time as his harder tyres needed cleaning up and was three seconds behind Norris.
On lap 51, Verstappen’s gap was being cut by Norris down to 4.658 seconds as Leclerc was third, Piastri fourth as Sainz completed the top five runners.
On tour 53, Russell pitted from sixth for his fresh set of mediums and came out in seventh place behind team-mate Hamilton as Perez set the fastest lap of the Grand Prix.
Meanwhile Stroll moved into ninth place passing Tsunoda.
On the 57th lap, the battle for the lead was starting to heat up as Norris brought the gap to race leader Verstappen down to 2.016 seconds as the latter was suffering from turning in and on older rubber.
Norris brought the gap once again a lap later, down to 1.678 seconds to Verstappen.
On lap 60, the gap between Norris and Verstappen was sitting at 1.500 as the former reported to his team over the radio that his tyres had fallen off the cliff.
On the penultimate tour, Norris through everything at it, and came close to binning it in the gravel as the gap dropped to 1.4 seconds.
The final lap saw Norris just miss out on DRS range ad the gap dropped down to 0.700 seconds.
But it was not to be as Verstappen crossed the line to clinch the Emilia Romagna GP victory by 0.725 seconds over Norris and his fifth win of the season as Leclerc settled for third.
Verstappen said over the radio: “Had to work for that.” Feeling relieved as Norris said to his team: “Hard luck, almost. Just lost a little bit too much at the start. Still another trophy. Let’s keep this up.”
The other McLaren and Ferrari entries followed as Piastri and Sainz finished fourth and fifth respectively as the Mercedes pairing of Hamilton and Russell came home in sixth and seventh place.
Russell also picked up the fastest lap bonus point.
The second Red Bull RB20 entry of Perez took eighth as Aston Martin’s Stroll and RB’s Tsunoda rounded out the top ten.
The two Haas VF-24 drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen followed in 11th and 12th respectively and in-front of RB’s Ricciardo and Alpine’s Ocon who finished in 13th and 14th.
Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu ended the Grand Prix 15th and ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly who was 16th and Williams’ Sargeant who came 17th in the classification.
Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso brought up the rear as Albon was the sole retiree.
2024 Emilia Romagna GP – The Top Three
2024 Emilia Romagna GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20:
“I think the whole race I had to push flat out to make a gap initially. On the mediums we were quite strong, on the hards it was harder to manage, and I saw Lando closing in. The last 10 laps I was just flat out, I couldn’t afford to make too many mistakes. We changed a lot on the car, we didn’t have a lot of information going into the race but from where we started the weekend to now, we can be incredibly pleased with a pole and a win. I’ll take that!”
2nd Place – Lando Norris, #4, McLaren Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, MCL38, +0.725s:
“It hurts me to say but one or two more laps and I would have had him. Tough, I just lost out to Max too much in the beginning. One or two more laps would have been beautiful but not to be. I think we are at a point now where we can happily say we are in a position with Ferrari and Red Bull, we are fighting for first or second now. It’s still a surprise to say it’s frustrating not to win.”
3rd Place – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-24, +7.916s:
“At least it’s a podium, I’m only very happy when I win and today, we didn’t quite make it. We were very fast on the start of the stint on the hard, but later on [McLaren] were very, very quick. But it is incredible to be on the podium with all the Tifosi in Imola. Grazie mille!”
Formula 1 MSC Cruises Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell’Emilia Romagna 2024 Race Results Classification (63 Laps)
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | TIME/RETIRED | PTS |
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 63 | 1:25:25.252 | 25 |
| 2 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 63 | +0.725s | 18 |
| 3 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 63 | +7.916s | 15 |
| 4 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | MCLAREN MERCEDES | 63 | +14.132s | 12 |
| 5 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | FERRARI | 63 | +22.325s | 10 |
| 6 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 63 | +35.104s | 8 |
| 7 | 63 | George Russell | MERCEDES | 63 | +47.154s | 7 |
| 8 | 11 | Sergio Perez | RED BULL RACING HONDA RBPT | 63 | +54.776s | 4 |
| 9 | 18 | Lance Stroll | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 63 | +79.556s | 2 |
| 10 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB HONDA RBPT | 62 | +1 lap | 1 |
| 11 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | HAAS FERRARI | 62 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 12 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 62 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 13 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB HONDA RBPT | 62 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 14 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | ALPINE RENAULT | 62 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 15 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | KICK SAUBER FERRARI | 62 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 16 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | ALPINE RENAULT | 62 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 17 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 62 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 18 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | KICK SAUBER FERRARI | 62 | +1 lap | 0 |
| 19 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | ASTON MARTIN ARAMCO MERCEDES | 62 | +1 lap | 0 |
| NC | 23 | Alexander Albon | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 51 | DNF | 0 |
Note – Russell scored an additional point for setting the fastest lap of the race.
https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2024/races/1235/italy/race-result.html
Click here for the 2024 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructor’s Championship Standings
Round eight of the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous and historic streets of Monte Carlo at the Circuit De Monaco next weekend for the Formula 1 Grand Prix De Monaco 2024 from Friday May 24-Sunday May 26.
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