Max Verstappen has held off a surging Lando Norris to extend his lead in the world championship, as McLaren’s resurgence to the front of the Formula 1 grid continued.
The Dutchman won the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, at the famous Imola circuit in northern Italy, seeing off McLaren’s Lando Norris in second and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in third.
Fifteen laps from the end Verstappen looked comfortable with a lead of more than six seconds before Norris, fresh off his maiden win last time out, reeled in the triple world champion to make him sweat all the way to the finish line.
Despite starting from pole there were concerns at Red Bull their race pace may be inferior to the McLaren of Norris, and those fears looked to be materialising in the dying stages at Imola.
Verstappen and Red Bull looked like they had the McLaren covered at the start of the race when both cars were on the medium compound tyres, but the McLaren showed a lot more pace towards the end when both teams had put the hard compound on after their lone pit stops.
But the Dutchman was able to stare down the challenge laid by Norris, ultimately holding on to win by just seven-tenths-of-a-second.
“I think the whole race I had to push flat-out,” Verstappen said.
“The last 10-15 laps I had no grip anymore, I was really sliding a lot.
“I saw Lando closing in, so the last 10 laps were flat out.”
Verstappen had complained over the team radio late in the race that he was struggling for grip.
The win was a turnaround from the practice sessions on Friday where the Red Bull cars were off the pace.
“We changed a lot on the car,” Verstappen said.
“We didn’t have a lot of information going into the race. Maybe that’s why on the hard tyres it was a bit more difficult for us.
“But from where we started the weekend we can be incredibly pleased with a pole and a win.”
Australian driver Oscar Piastri drove a solid race at Imola, finishing fourth after a race-long battle with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
The McLaren driver started fifth — suffering a three-place grid penalty from the previous day’s qualifying where he was second fastest — and was on the pace with his teammate and the two Ferrari in the battle for the podium.
Piastri was frustrated behind Sainz in the early stages as he struggled to overtake the Spaniard on a track that is notoriously difficult to pass.
But McLaren’s smart move to pit a few laps earlier than Ferrari allowed Piastri to fire in some fast laps in clean air and ultimately overtake Sainz when he came in for his stop just a handful of laps later.
Once ahead of Sainz, Piastri was never threatened for fourth place, rounding out a great weekend for McLaren who gained some ground on Ferrari in the battle for second in the constructors’ championship.