This week’s F1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix was a door slam for Max Verstappen. Following the Red Bull driver’s struggles in Friday’s dual practice session in the upgraded RB20, many believe Verstappen’s chances of winning his eighth straight pole position will be rejected by another team, perhaps McLaren or local favorite Ferrari. I believed that it was open to the public. But with an incredible performance on Saturday, Verstappen slammed the door shut and took first place for the start of the race at historic Imola.
But more doors had to be closed on Sunday.
The first one came right after the start. Overtaking was a big deal at Imola, so the best chance for drivers like Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. to take on Verstappen was to catch him at the start.
Within the first few revolutions after the lights went out, Verstappen closed that door.
At the very end of the formation lap, Verstappen pulled his RB20 into the grid box at a slight angle, giving himself the ideal line into turn one. Meanwhile, Norris, who started alongside Verstappen in second, had a similar start. He maintained the lead from Turn 1 until the early chicane at Tamburello, then through Turns 2, 3 and 4. And for a while, Norris hovered around Verstappen, coming within a second of him and threatening a potentially critical DRS. In the end, the RB20 pulled away, leaving the rest of the grid to fight for second place.
However, the battle was not over.
With laps remaining approaching single digits, Norris was closing in again. On lap 57, the McLaren driver was just two seconds behind Verstappen and was rapidly closing in on him. Complicating matters for Verstappen was the fact that he had already exceeded the track limits three times and was driving under a black and white flag. One more violation would have given Verstappen a five-second penalty and Norris the win.
For Verstappen, it was a ‘rock and hard place’ situation. If you push the RB20 to the limit, he might give the game away. If you drive too conservatively, he may give up the game. Lap after lap, Norris cut into Verstappen’s lead and it looked like the McLaren would catch him to the checkered flag.
Behind him, Norris continued to push, pushing the MCL38 to its limits on each final lap. “I’m pushing as hard as I can, buddy,” Norris announced to his team over the radio on lap 57.
On lap 61, Verstappen reported that his battery was almost empty. His rearview mirror was filled with the papaya orange Norris MCL38. The battle was on and the door was open.
With three miles left and the final lap underway, Norris was within a second. Can he close the gap and stun Verstappen at Imola?
He was unable to do that as Verstappen got around Norris in the final few turns and beat him by seven-tenths of a second.
The door closed again.
“I think I had to push as hard as I could throughout the whole race,” Verstappen told Vicky Piglia. “I could see Lando coming up, but the last 10 laps were absolutely fine… Of course I’m very happy to win here today.” We made a lot of changes to the car. [after Friday]’ added Verstappen. “From the start of the weekend to now, I’m incredibly happy.”
As Alex Jack described it, F1TVNorris asked the question and Verstappen provided the answer.
After Saturday’s qualifying, Norris called anyone who doubted Verstappen’s ability to put in a strong performance “fools” in an FIA press conference. “I don’t know, Max didn’t have such a smooth weekend, but I think it’s a little bit stupid for anyone to doubt Red Bull or that he’ll come back and do a good job in qualifying. So, yeah, we… I think they expected them to get back on track,” Norris said.
Maybe Verstappen is good at slamming doors and crushing dreams.
Here are the full results and winners and losers of the F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Winner: McLaren
Verstappen and Red Bull may have won the battle.
But McLaren really feels like it could win the war someday.
Although Norris was unable to catch Verstappen at the checkered flag, Norris and McLaren were able to battle Red Bull for the lead. And Oscar Piastri’s fourth place finish gave the team a huge 30 points between the two drivers, which was a big win for the team.
There is a good chance that Red Bull will win the Constructors’ Championship for the third time in a row, and they are certainly the favourites to win.
However, the gap appears to be closing, and McLaren is firmly joining the force.
“It pains me to say it, but I think with one or two more laps we could have gotten him,” Norris told Vicki Piglia at trackside. “One or two more laps would have been great.
“I think we’re at a stage now where you can say we’re with Ferrari and Red Bull… we’re just fighting for first or second place right now. It’s still surprising to say it’s disappointing not to win, but compared to last weekend… Given the improvements we’ve made, that’s what we should start expecting.”
This year may be a bridge too far for McLaren to truly challenge Red Bull’s P1 in the constructors’ championship, as Red Bull leaves Imola 56 points behind Ferrari and 114 points behind McLaren. However, after his victory at the Miami Grand Prix, Norris made it clear that his aim was to challenge for the title by next season. “Next year? Yes, 100 percent. 100 percent,” Norris said. sky sports f1 Last week. “One hundred percent.
“But when I say I’m sitting with my feet on the ground, that’s true. I want to believe it. We have two good drivers. But as Zack… [Brown] “I have a great team,” I often say. We have a great team behind us.
“So as much as I said at the beginning of this year that we could win races, I want to believe and I should be able to say that with confidence that we can win even more next year.”
“We can take the next step, but there is still a lot of work to do and we are working hard to achieve it.”
Today, that goal seems closer than ever.
Winner: Ferrari
McLaren may grab the headlines with Norris’ late charge and Piastri’s fourth place finish, but it was also a solid weekend for Ferrari at their home race. Charles Leclerc continued his podium finish in third place, while Carlos Sainz Jr. finished fifth, giving the Scuderia a huge amount of points at Imola.
With this podium finish, Leclerc became the first Ferrari driver to stand on the podium at Imola since Michael Schumacher in 2006.
All week it looked as if Ferrari would be Red Bull’s biggest threat. It was Norris in the MCL38 that posed Verstappen’s toughest test on Sunday, but Ferrari’s ability to put both drivers inside the top five showed they were still a force on the grid.
And this season, the door was left open for a challenge to Red Bull.
Winner: Lance Stroll
Another storyline going into Sunday was whether Aston Martin could take something back from the weekend. Fernando Alonso started from the pitlane and Lance Stroll from outside the points after the team made several changes to the AMR24 overnight, giving Aston Martin something special to add to its record at Imola. It took something special to add it.
They got something special from Stroll.
The Canadian raced through the field and moved into the points thanks to a crucial overtake late in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Stroll caught Nico Hulkenberg on lap 47 and moved into 10th place, and a few laps later he was narrowed down by Yuki Tsunoda to ninth place. He finished ninth, taking hard-earned points on his 150th F1 start.
Two potentially important points were added to this year’s score.
Loser: Williams
It was a disastrous weekend for Williams.
Alexander Albon and Logan Sargent both started at the back of the field, outside the points. Sargent failed to record a lap time during Saturday’s qualifying, and all his times were erased for exceeding track limits. Albon was able to advance to Q2, but he qualified 14th and that’s where the day ended.
This was probably the high point of their weekend.
Albon in particular endured a tough afternoon as he returned to the fray with an early pit stop due to improper tire installation. He wandered around the Imola circuit and managed to make it back to the pits, but was given a penalty for an unsafe release. He made numerous pit stops throughout the afternoon and eventually retired before the finish.
As for Sargent, team principal James Vowles said his place on the team in 2025 was “in jeopardy”, but he remained in the competition, finishing just 17th.
Williams were the darlings of the field last year, with Albon leading them to a shocking seventh-place finish in the constructors’ championship standings. However, the team has yet to score any points this season and will need something special over the rest of the season to match that result.
Winner: Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel was not one of the 20 drivers to start the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
But before the lights went out, the former champion was one of the clear winners.
Last year’s Grand Prix was canceled due to flooding in the area, so the return of F1 to Imola after a long absence was no doubt an emotional one. But that was just one of the reasons Grid returned to Imola with a heavy heart. the other one is? This weekend marks 30 years since the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, also held at Imola, which saw the tragic deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna.
Vettel spearheaded the effort, with tributes pouring in for both drivers throughout the week. The retired F1 champion took one lap around the circuit for the grid on Thursday, and ahead of today’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Vettel got into Senna’s McLaren MP4/8 (the car the legendary Senna drove in 1993) and drove to Imola. I went around one time.
At the end of that lap, Vettel held up two flags: the Brazilian flag in honor of Senna, and the Austrian flag in honor of Ratzenberger. After getting off his MP4/8, Vettel continued with his eulogy.
Vettel’s entire performance can be seen here.
He did not participate in the race itself.
But thanks to this beautiful tribute, Vettel, like all of us, became one of the winners.
Winner: Fan
Saturday’s thrilling qualifying session was just the appetizer.
Sunday was the main course and it was delicious.
For the first two-thirds of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, the result seemed inevitable, as Verstappen was intent on running away from the field, as he has done so many times before. But towards the end Norris brought him in and set us all up for a real battle to the checkered flag.
Verstappen won that battle, but the very fact that the problem became suspected as the laps wore on was an indication that this season might indeed be different from F1’s past.
Verstappen remains the favorite to win the drivers’ championship and Red Bull remains the favorite to win the constructors’ championship, and rightly so. But profit margins appear to be shrinking steadily and rapidly. Ferrari and McLaren in particular seem to be closing the gap, and the door to a title fight seems slightly open.
Verstappen and Red Bull could slam the door shut for the rest of the season, as they have done many times before. But given how Verstappen and Red Bull started the year looking like they were going to pull apart just like they did a year ago, the problem appears to be far from resolved now that the grid heads to Monaco.
This season has provided thrills for all of us so far.
