Max Verstappen demonstrates a remarkable ability to recover quickly.
Verstappen successfully fended off a strong late-race effort from Lando Norris to secure his fifth victory of the season at the 2024 FIA Formula 1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc finishing in third place for Ferrari.
Following an impressive start, where Verstappen took the lead from pole position and effectively managed the majority of the race, a third consecutive victory at Imola seemed highly likely. However, in the final ten laps, the performance of the Red Bull driver’s Hard tyres began to deteriorate significantly, and Norris saw an opportunity to challenge. Despite the gap narrowing to less than a second, Verstappen successfully maintained his position, securing a hard-fought victory.
“The whole race I had to push flat out,” said Verstappen. “On the Medium tires, we were quite strong. On the Hard tires, it was just a bit more difficult to manage, and especially the last 10 or 15 laps, I had no grip anymore. I was really sliding a lot. I saw Lando closing in. So the last 10 laps it was just flat out. I couldn’t afford to make too many mistakes. Luckily, we didn’t and I’m super happy of course to win here today.”
At the onset of the race, when the lights turned off, Verstappen made an excellent start, taking the lead from pole position as the field approached the Tamburello chicane. Following the top two drivers, Leclerc secured third place, with Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari and Oscar Piastri from McLaren closely trailing behind.
At the front of the race, with a clear path ahead, Verstappen started to distance himself from Norris. After seven laps, the Dutch driver had nearly a two-second advantage over the McLaren driver. As the first stint progressed, the Red Bull driver extended his lead to five seconds over Norris.
At the conclusion of lap 23, Norris completed his only pit stop of the race and, after transitioning to Hard tyres, the McLaren driver returned to the track behind Sergio Pérez, who was executing a lengthy initial stint on the same tyre compound. However, with older tyres, Pérez was unable to maintain his position against Norris, who advanced into the lead at the beginning of the subsequent lap.
Following this, Verstappen conducted his pit stop, successfully switching to Hard tyres in 2.6 seconds and rejoining the race in fourth place, positioned behind Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. As the new race leader Leclerc, his teammate Carlos Sainz in second, and Hamilton proceeded through the pit lane for their stops, Verstappen regained the lead, now 6.3 seconds ahead of Norris.
“It hurts me to say but one or two more laps and I think I would have had him. Tough, A shame. I fought hard right until the very last lap,” Norris said. “We just lost out a little bit too much to Max in the beginning. He was he was much better in the first stint and obviously in the second stint we were stronger, but yeah, just was a tough first half and a much better second half. One or two more laps would have been beautiful, but just not today.”
Verstappen completed his pit stop, transitioning to Hard tyres in 2.6 seconds, and rejoined the race in fourth position, behind Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes. As the new leader Charles Leclerc, his second-placed teammate Carlos Sainz, and Hamilton cycled through the pit lane for their stops, Verstappen reclaimed the lead, now 6.3 seconds ahead of Lando Norris.
In third place, Leclerc maintained his position, while Oscar Piastri successfully undercut the late-stopping Sainz to secure fourth. Sergio Pérez, who was on starting Hard tyres, found himself in sixth position but began to lose ground, eventually dropping to eighth behind the Mercedes drivers.
At the conclusion of lap 37, Pérez entered the pits to switch to Medium tyres. Although he initially returned to his starting position of 11th, the pace advantage from the new Medium tyres allowed him to quickly catch up to the competitors in front.
On lap 39, he overtook Ricciardo and a lap later, utilizing DRS, he moved past Hülkenberg on the approach to Tamburello. His next target was Tsunoda, and on lap 43, he again took advantage of DRS to surpass the Japanese driver on the pit straight, advancing to P8.
Meanwhile, Verstappen appeared to be handling the race well, but with ten laps remaining, he communicated over the team radio expressing concern that his tyres were not performing as expected. Over subsequent laps, his 6.0-second lead over Norris diminished to four seconds and then to two seconds.
Despite these challenges, Verstappen remained composed. As the gap narrowed to DRS range in the final three laps, he managed to maintain his position, crossing the finish line just 0.7 seconds ahead of Norris.
With Norris in second place and Leclerc securing the final podium position, Oscar Piastri finished fourth, ahead of Sainz and the two Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Pérez concluded the race in P8, successfully recovering from his initial position in 11th place, while Lance Stroll of Aston Martin finished ninth, and Tsunoda claimed the final point in tenth.
2024 FIA Formula 1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – Race
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 63 1:25’25.252
2 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 63 1:25’25.977 0.725
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 63 1:25’33.168 7.916
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 63 1:25’39.384 14.132
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 63 1:25’47.577 22.325
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 63 1:26’00.356 35.104
7 George Russell Mercedes 63 1:26’12.406 47.154
8 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 63 1:26’20.028 54.776
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 63 1:26’44.808 1’19.556
10 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 62 1:25’43.108 1 lap /17.856
11 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 62 1:25’50.529 1 lap /25.277
12 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 62 1:25’51.686 1 lap /26.434
13 Daniel Ricciardo RB/Honda RBPT 62 1:25’52.913 1 lap /27.661
14 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 62 1:26’09.159 1 lap /43.907
15 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber/Ferrari 62 1:26’10.185 1 lap /44.933
16 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 62 1:26’14.967 1 lap /49.715
17 Logan Sargeant Williams/Mercedes 62 1:26’16.303 1 lap /51.051
18 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber/Ferrari 62 1:26’21.595 1 lap /56.343
19 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 62 1:26’40.376 1 lap /1’15.124
Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 51 1:13’07.729 Withdrew
Photo/MaxVerstappen/X
