@Max33Verstappen cruises to dominant victory in wet and wild #EmiliaRomagnaGP. #F1 #ImolaGP

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen cruised to victory in a thrilling wet-dry Emilia Romagna GP, with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton recovering to second and McLaren’s Lando Norris completing the podium.

 

 

Verstappen and Hamilton tangled at the opening corners, with the latter having to put on a charge after slipping off into the gravel trap at the Tosa hairpin just before the red flag near half race distance thanks to a massive incident involving Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Williams Racing’s George Russell.

 

Rain fell in the first half of the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari circuit in the hour leading up to the Grand Prix meaning most of the cars left the grid on the green side-walled intermediate tyres.

 

When the 63 lap Emilia Romagna GP began, third-placed Verstappen made a brilliant run off the line to pull alongside Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez and was rapidly quick to go side-by-side alongside Hamilton – almost running onto the grass on his left-hand side – as they ran down to the Tamburello chicane.

 

 

Verstappen was ahead by the braking point, but Hamilton braked later to remain on the outside as the pairing went wheel-to-wheel around the first left part of the sequence.

 

The Dutchman stuck to the racing line and when Hamilton committed and kept his nose alongside, they tangled at the second apex of the chicane, damaging the F1 W12 EQ Performance racers’ left-front wing endplate and forced Hamilton to rumble over the kerbs.

 

Verstappen charged clear in the lead as the field continued to cautiously made their way around on the opening lap, which ended with the deployment of the safety car after Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi speared into the wall exiting Acque Minerali, where the Canadian had spun off, and went across the front of Nikita Mazepin’s Haas VF-21.

 

The race was halted until lap seven, with an extended period due to Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher losing the rear of his Ferrari-powered VF-21 while warming his tyres in the safety car queue and smashing his front wing off on the wall at the pit-lane exit, which was closed as the debris was cleared.

 

Verstappen was able to remain in-front of Hamilton as the Briton had a look around the outside of the Red Bull on the rundown to Tamburello as they returned to racing speed, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who had passed Perez for third place exiting the Variante Alta moments before Latifi’s shunt, also following close in third.

 

But a slip exiting Acque Minerali from Hamilton gave Verstappen some breathing space and had a 3.3 second gap at the end of the first racing tour.

 

Verstappen quickly extended his advantage to five seconds over the Mercedes driver, with Leclerc soon fading away from Hamilton’s rear, but was well ahead of Perez, who was hit with a 10 second stop-and-go penalty for overtaking under the safety car as he went wide at Piratella and briefly let McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly who was on full-wets get by.

 

Hamilton was able to keep the gap to Verstappen around five seconds for the next stage of the Grand Prix as they exchanged fastest laps, while considering when to come in to swap their intermediates to slick rubber.

 

Just after Verstappen pushed his lead to six seconds as they approached the mid-way point of the race, Hamilton was able to gain crucially, cutting the gap to three seconds before they found traffic ahead.

 

Once they got through the cars in-front, Verstappen’s advantage fell down to two seconds and after speaking over the radio to his team, he stopped for the C4 medium compounds at the end of the 27^th tour.

 

Hamilton also stopped for the yellow-marked tyres at the end of the following lap, but the Briton’s decision to stay out for an extra tour and the right-front coming slowly off the Mercedes meant Verstappen’s gap was back up to 5.5 seconds at the beginning of the 31^st lap.

 

On that lap, which had started with Verstappen lapping Mercedes’ Bottas, who was running near the end of the top ten in the other F1 W12 and at the head of another pack of lapped runners, Hamilton locked up passing Russell at the Tosa hairpin and slid off into the gravel.

 

The Briton went far enough to damage his front wing against the outside wall when he tried to turn onto the escape road, which forced the Mercedes driver to stop and slowly change gears to reverse and eventually went backwards taking the long way back onto the circuit.

 

Hamilton travelled back to the pits, promoting Leclerc to second place and Norris to third after Perez fell behind the McLaren after serving his 10-second stop-and-go penalty and pit-stop, to change his front wing, but was able to make his second stop under the safety car after Bottas and Russell’s massive incident at Tamburello.

 

The Briton was closing in very rapidly on the outside of the Mercedes on the rundown to the left apex of the chicane and just before they reached the braking point, they ran very close together.

 

Russell looked to have put his right-rear wheel on the grass, due to the reaction of Bottas jinking to the right – with the incident currently under investigation – and the Williams driver’s FW43B racer shot left, and the duo were both eliminated in a huge accident into the barriers on the inside and then the outside of Tamburello, where they were livid at each other in the gravel after coming to a halt.

 

The race was red flagged for 25 minutes before it resumed at the beginning of the 35^th tour, but with a rolling safety car restart instead of another standing start – which was used at last season’s Italian and Tuscan Grands Prix.

 

Verstappen pulled clear of Leclerc when he reached the line, seconds after the Dutchman spun his RB16B racer almost spun the lead away when he suffered a wild moment and cut across on the inside of the first Rivazza corner as the safety car peeled off in-front.

 

The lack of slipstream behind Verstappen left Leclerc under-threat to Norris and the Briton – running the C4 red-branded softs compared to the mediums on the Ferrari and Red Bull – claimed second at Tamburello.

 

Verstappen flew clear at the front, reaching a lead of six seconds at the start of the 43^rd tour, with Norris attempting to keep his softer rubber alive to the end in-front of Ferrari pairing Leclerc and Carlos Sainz who was promoted by Perez who spun off behind the leading SF21 as the Mexican ran through the Villeneuve chicane on lap 38 and dropped to 14^th.

 

Meanwhile in the pack behind, Hamilton was in full salvage mode after gaining a lap he lost with his Tosa hairpin off slow run back to the pits due to the red flag.

 

He took the race restart in ninth place, immediately claiming a place when Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda spun off in-front of the Mercedes F1 W12 at Tamburello on the first lap at racing speed, and then made short work of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and McLaren’s Ricciardo once he lit up his medium tyres and benefitted from DRS down to Tamburello.

 

Hamilton took a while to close up to the Ferrari duo but eventually got by Sainz to set up an intense hunt in the closing stages, with Norris trying to keep Leclerc at bay as Hamilton closed towards the Ferrari.

 

When Leclerc fell out of DRS range behind Norris at the start of the 55^th tour, Hamilton showed no mercy and took third place from the Monegasque-youngster around the outside ahead of Tamburello and chased off after the McLaren.

 

Norris held on for another five laps, but in the end, it was Hamilton who made a near identical-overtake with DRS assistance with three laps remaining to reclaim second place he had lost nearly half the Grand Prix earlier.

 

Verstappen was 20 seconds ahead and the two leaders exchanged a series of fastest laps in the final few laps, which eventually saw the fastest lap bonus point go to the Briton, as Verstappen crossed the line to claim the Emilia Romagna GP victory by 22 seconds, with Norris taking the third place 1.7 seconds behind the Mercedes.

 

The Ferrari pairing of Leclerc and Sainz, who both suffered several off moments during the wet opening stages, came at the Scuderia’s first home Grand Prix of the season in fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of Ricciardo who took sixth and AlphaTauri’s Gasly wound up seventh after struggling on his full-wets in the early stages (The Frenchman was promoted to seventh due to Stroll’s post-race penalty for illegal overtake on him).

 

Stroll originally finished the race seventh but was demoted to eighth after the aforementioned post-race penalty – with the latter claiming points after his AMR21 racer was quickly repaired on the grid after the brakes caught fire on the laps to the grid and the rain fell.

 

Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon claimed ninth place ahead of team-mate Fernando Alonso, who had lost his front wing after sliding off at Tosa hairpin on the pre-race laps before the start of the Grand Prix and later suffered a spin after the aforementioned massive crash involving Bottas and Russell.

 

Perez ended his race in 12^th ahead of Tsunoda, and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen originally came home ninth but was hit with a 30-second time-penalty post-race from the stewards for a rolling start infringement.

 

Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel had a late retirement with a suspected gearbox issue.

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Imola GP – The Top Three

 

 

Imola GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B:

“Very challenging out there, especially the beginning. I think we managed everything well, despite the small moment at my restart. It’s a long season, got to stay calm!”

 

2^nd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance:

“Congratulations to Max and Lando. On my side, it’s the first time I’ve made a mistake in a long time. I’m really grateful to be here, it was so hard to get going again. I had some really fun battles with all the guys.”

 

3^rd Place – Lando Norris, #4, McLaren F1 Team, MCL35M:

“I’m happy, a nice recovery after yesterday. I didn’t start so well but I came back through, I had good pace. It’s nice to be fighting these guys, it’s nice to be there on merit, there on pace. I’m happy with third, I’m not disappointed!”

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Formula 1 Pirelli Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell’emilia Romagna 2021 Race Results Classification (63 Laps)

 

POS	NO	DRIVER	CAR	LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS
1	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	63	2:02:34.598	25
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	63	+22.000s	19
3	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	63	+23.702s	15
4	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	63	+25.579s	12
5	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	63	+27.036s	10
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	MCLAREN MERCEDES	63	+51.220s	8
7	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI HONDA	63	+52.818s	6
8	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	63	+56.909s	4
9	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	63	+65.704s	2
10	14	Fernando Alonso	ALPINE RENAULT	63	+66.561s	1
11	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA	63	+67.151s	0
12	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA	63	+73.184s	0
13	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	63	+94.773s	0
14	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	62	+1 lap	0
15	5	Sebastian Vettel	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	61	DNF	0
16	47	Mick Schumacher	HAAS FERRARI	61	+2 laps	0
17	9	Nikita Mazepin	HAAS FERRARI	61	+2 laps	0
NC	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	30	DNF	0
NC	63	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	30	DNF	0
NC	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	0	DNF	0

https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1065/italy/race-result.html

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Driver’s and Constructors Championship standings at the link: 2021 F1 World Championship Standings

 

Round three of the 2021 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the Autodromo Internacional Do Algarve in Portimao, Algarve, Portugal for the Formula 1 Heineken Grande Premio De Portugal 2021 from April 30-May 2.

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#ImolaGP Qualifying: @LewisHamilton claims 99th-career pole position. #F1 #EmiliaRomagnaGP

#ImolaGP FP3: @MaxVerstappen tops time-sheets ahead of @LandoNorris. #F1

#ImolaGP FP2: @ValtteriBottas heads @MercedesAMGF1 1-2 as @CharlesLeclerc crashes. #F1

#EmiliaRomagnaGP FP1: @ValtteriBottas pips @LewisHamilton to go quickest in session. #F1

#F1 Pirelli Gran Premio Del Made In Italy Dell’emilia Romagna 2021 Preview. #EmiliaRomagnaGP