Imola

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen wins for the fourth straight time at Imola, defeating McLaren’s Lando Norris and F1 drivers’ standings leader Oscar Piastri.

Max Verstappen has given his Formula 1 title defence a big boost with victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix after a daring overtake on standings leader Oscar Piastri at the start.

The Dutch driver built a commanding lead on Sunday that was wiped out when the safety car bundled the field back up. He still held on to win ahead of Lando Norris, who overtook his McLaren teammate Piastri for second with five laps remaining.

Verstappen took his second win of the season and first since last month’s Japanese Grand Prix and denied Piastri – who finished third – what would have been his fourth victory in a row.

Verstappen praised his Red Bull team’s “fantastic execution all round” as the team marked its 400th F1 race with a win.

“The start itself wasn’t particularly great, but I was still on the outside line, or basically the normal [racing] line, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m just going to try and send it round the outside,’ and it worked really well,” Verstappen said of his crucial overtake. “That, of course, unleashed our pace because once we were in the lead, the car was good.”

Norris’s late-race move on Piastri was almost a copy of Verstappen’s although Norris had the advantage of being on fresher tyres than his teammate.

“We had a good little battle at the end between Oscar and myself, which is always tense but always good fun,” Norris said, admitting that Verstappen and Red Bull were “too good for us today”.

Piastri’s lead over Norris in the standings was cut to 13 points. Verstappen rounds out the top three at nine points behind Norris.

Hamilton bounces back

Lewis Hamilton recovered from 12th on the grid to finish fourth in his first race for Ferrari in Italy.

Hamilton profited from a late-race fight between his teammate Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon of Williams.

Albon complained Leclerc had pushed him off the track as they battled for fourth, and Hamilton passed both drivers before Ferrari eventually asked Leclerc to yield fifth to Albon.

George Russell was seventh for Mercedes, ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr in the second Williams.

Isack Hadjar was ninth for Racing Bulls, and Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda was 10th after starting last following a crash in qualifying.

An action-packed ‘farewell’ to Imola

Overtaking was expected to be rare in what could be F1’s last race for the foreseeable future at Imola. Instead, the Italian fans were treated to Verstappen’s spectacular move at the start and plenty of other overtakes.

The narrow, bumpy Imola track has been a favourite among drivers, who have relished its old-school challenge since it returned to the F1 schedule during the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, its status as Italy’s second race – only the United States also hosts more than one – makes its position vulnerable.

“If we don’t come back here, it is going to be a shame,” Piastri said on Saturday.

Sunday’s race was the last under Imola’s current contract, and while it isn’t officially goodbye yet, there has been no word about next year.

It was a fitting drive to mark Red Bull’s 400th grand prix.

The two caution periods led to a see-sawing battle between the McLaren drivers for second place.

Piastri had been on target to pass Norris when the Briton made his only pit stop and looked set to lead to a fight with Norris coming back at Piastri on fresher tyres.

Shortly after Norris’ stop, Esteban Ocon’s Haas stopped on the hill between the Tosa and Piratella corners, leading to a virtual safety car (VSC) period.

Norris was ahead after the VSC because Piastri stopped for fresh tyres to avoid being vulnerable to cars behind.

Then, officials decided to deploy a full safety car when Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes stopped in exactly the same place as Ocon had.

This time, Verstappen and Norris stopped for fresh tyres and Piastri did not – because he had no appropriate ones still available – and that put Norris back behind Piastri, but on 16-lap fresher tyres.

Behind the safety car, Norris suggested that Piastri’s tyres “looked pretty dead” and they should not fight if they wanted to challenge Verstappen for the win.

But McLaren chose not to apply team orders and the two battled for three laps before Norris finally swept by into the first chicane with five laps to go, by which time Verstappen was out of reach.

The closing laps were compelling viewing, with the field alternating position between drivers on old tyres and those on fresh.

This allowed Hamilton to move up. He had started on hard tyres and ran long, which allowed him to make his first stop under the VSC, and again for fresh tyres under the safety car.

He passed Albon’s Williams and Leclerc and was just 1.4 seconds behind Piastri at the flag.

Leclerc fought hard to hold back Albon but was adjudged to have forced the Williams off track when they were side by side through Tamburello and Ferrari ordered him to hand the position back, giving Albon fifth place.

The Anglo-Thai’s team-mate Carlos Sainz finished eighth, ahead of the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar and Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, scoring the final point after his heavy crash in qualifying.

And the timing of the two safety cars also wrecked the hopes of Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso, after his excellent fifth place on the grid.

An early pit stop and a limited tyre allocation boxed Aston and Alonso in, and he bemoaned on the radio that he was “the unluckiest driver ever” as he slumped to an 11th-place finish.