Red Bull Motorsports
F1
Max Verstappen storms to victory in chaotic Emilia Romagna GP
Red Bull Racing Honda's flying Dutchman scored victory at Italy’s Imola Circuit, where the conditions turned the second race of the F1 season into a spin-filled lottery.
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Max Verstappen carried an air of calm through a chaotic second race of the Formula One season at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday, snaring his 11th F1 victory for Red Bull Racing Honda and with it, levelling what seems destined to be a season-long battle with reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton at one win apiece in 2021.
The wet conditions of the (deep breath) Gran Premio Del Made In Italy Dell'emilia Romagna 2021 at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari (we'll call it Imola) could hardly have been more different to the night race to kick off the season in the Bahrain desert three weeks ago. It was Verstappen who mastered them from the moment the lights went out, nailing the start and being in control for much of the 63-lap distance.
Verstappen's getaway on a slippery grid was sublime; he passed Hamilton at the first chicane on Lap 1 and was rarely troubled thereafter. The drama at Imola was largely in the Dutchman's rear-view mirror, as Hamilton slithered off the damp track on Lap 31 and barely crawled out of the trackside gravel trap before an enormous accident involving his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas and George Russell of Williams saw debris strewn all over the circuit, forcing the race to be red-flagged and suspended for 25 minutes.
Hamilton was able to recover from ninth at the restart to second by the chequered flag, earning an additional world championship point for fastest lap – the same solitary point that gives him the slimmest possible advantage in the standings, 44 points to Verstappen's 43.
Behind Hamilton on the podium came McLaren's Lando Norris, who equalled his career-best result with third and jumped to third behind Hamilton and Verstappen in the drivers' standings.
Here's what went down on a dramatic afternoon at Imola.
Verstappen emphatically ended his run of outs in Italy
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Max snaps his hoodoo
For all of his success elsewhere, Italy has been something of a bogey destination for Verstappen. Before Sunday's race, he'd never finished better than fifth in eight races between the Imola, Mugello and Monza circuits, and didn't see the finish line once in three races in the country in 2020. And don't think he didn't know it.
"I like Italy, the food is good, I enjoy being here, but just the driving part so far hasn’t been the luckiest," he commented in the lead-up to Sunday's race, but his rocket start and customary prowess in slippery conditions saw him bolt to a commanding lead after he pushed past Hamilton on Lap 1.
The moment: Verstappen muscles past Hamilton on the first lap
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"I surprised myself," he admitted afterwards about his launch from the grid.
"Last year we've been struggling a little bit off the line but we've been working really hard to make that better. In these tricky conditions we did a great start. It was very challenging out there, especially in the beginning – it was very hard to stay on track to be honest, it was very slippery. I think we managed everything well."
Verstappen's win wasn't entirely plain sailing – a lurid slide just before the race restart on Lap 35 raised pulses on the Red Bull Racing Honda pit wall – but a 22-second margin at the finish underlined his dominance.
"I had my little moment with the restart, but everything else went really well today," he said.
"I was just trying to warm (the tyres) with the throttle but luckily we didn't spin."
Sunday not a fun day for Checo
The Mexican fell to fourth off the start, but worse was to come after an early safety car caused by a crash for Williams driver Nicolas Latifi on the opening lap; Pérez slid off track as the field circulated behind the safety car and dropped behind two rivals, but immediately reclaimed his position and was hit with a 10-second pit-lane penalty.
Pérez's pitstop penalty put him on the back foot
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A later spin after the race restarted saw him fall out of the points, but Red Bull Racing Honda team principal Christian Horner felt Pérez had shown enough pace on Saturday to suggest better Sundays aren't far away.
"He did a mega job yesterday to put it on the front row and only just miss out on that pole position, and there's great races to come from him in the future," Horner said.
"In clean air his pace was strong. It was tough for him, the race just didn't go his way this afternoon with a couple of little spins. We should have taken a lot more points out of Mercedes today, but he had good pace in the race and there's a long, long way to go."
Gasly, Tsunoda lose out in lottery
Gasly started from fifth place for the second consecutive race, but was left to lament a decision to run full wet tyres on a half-wet, half-dry track at the start of the race where all of his rivals in the top 10 chanced their arms with intermediate rubber. As the circuit dried, Gasly plummeted down the order to 17th when he pitted 15 laps in, making his recovery back to seventh after the race restart meritorious in the circumstances.
Gasly battled back to the points after a tough start
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Tsunoda's second F1 weekend was more fraught; the star of Bahrain had a big shunt in qualifying that snapped the gearbox of his car in half and saw him start last in a rebuilt chassis, but he showed his customary overtaking flair to scythe his way into the top 10 before a late-race off dropped him outside of the points.
Bottas, Russell exchange barbs
A race that went past the two-hour mark because of the red flag surprisingly saw just three retirements in hazardous conditions, but it was the clash that saw the red flag thrown between Bottas and Russell that caused a stir. The pair – who were briefly team-mates at Mercedes for the Sakhir GP last year when Russell deputised for a sidelined Hamilton – came together on the run to the Tamburello corner at over 300kph, and remonstrated with one another as soon as what was left of their cars came to a stop, each clearly blaming the other for the incident.
Against the backdrop of Bottas being out of contract at Mercedes at the end of this season and Russell thought to be the primary candidate to take his place if a change is made, their feud didn’t abate once they'd made it back to the paddock.
"I'm sure he's upset and frustrated with me as I am with him," Russell said. "The faintest of movements when you're travelling at 200 miles an hour is a massive thing. Perhaps if it was another driver, he wouldn't have done that."
Bottas was adamant he'd done nothing wrong.
"It was quite a big one, but it could have obviously been a lot worse. George went for an overtake in a place where there's only pretty much one dry line. I've seen a replay and there was definitely space for two cars... I don't know what he was about afterwards, trying to say something, but it was completely his fault."
All roads lead to the Algarve
F1 stays in Europe for the next round in a fortnight's time for the Portuguese Grand Prix at Portimão (May 2), the second F1 race held at the circuit coming just six months after the undulating layout hosted the sport for the first time as part of a hastily-amended Europe-centric calendar in 2020.
Verstappen, in his current form, will have bigger ambitions than repeating the distant third place he took last October behind Hamilton, while Portugal was the site of an outstanding fifth for Gasly and AlphaTauri on the last visit to the circuit.
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