Imola GP: Max Verstappen puts on a clinic in Ferrari’s backyard beating Sergio Perez and Lando Norris

Imola GP: Max Verstappen puts on a clinic in Ferrari’s backyard beating Sergio Perez and Lando Norris

On Sunday, the rains stopped and sun shone through the clouds as the Tifosi cheered and the drivers went into a formation lap, at the start of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola, Italy. After an interesting Sprint weekend where we found the Mercedes cars upset the fans of the Stuttgart-based team, and reigning World Champion Max Verstappen locked horns with current World Championship leader Charles Leclerc in an action-packed Sprint Race.

But all the sideshows aside, it all came down to the Main Race on Sunday as everyone was excited to see if Leclerc succeedes in redeeming his first position and winning his third race in the 2022 Formula 1 season. The first thing that caught everyone’s eye is how George Russell redeemed himself and had a brilliant start from P11 to P6 in the race.

While Charles Leclerc had a decent run and a thrilling fight with the two Red Bulls for the better part of the race, his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr, who recently got a contract renewal from the Scuderia Ferrari, had another unfortunate incident right at the beginning of the Imola Grand Prix. McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo and Sainz were going wheel-to-wheel when they had contact and the Scuderia recruit had to retire from the race. This marked Sainz’s second retirement in the first four races of the season.

FS Video

Ricciardo became a tyre testing driver for the Imola Grand Prix as Max Verstappen soars to the P1 position

When McLaren driver Daniel Ricciardo came into contact with Scuderia driver Carlos Sainz, he could get back into the race at the tail of the grid while Sainz had to retire completely. The Woking-based team saw this as an opportunity to test their tyre strategies on Ricciardo as the Australian had nothing to lose in the Imola Grand Prix.

Just as Ricciardo was called into the pits for a tyre change into the medium compounds, the other teams took notice how the Honey Badger set the fastest lap in his new tyres. Then, one by one, all the drivers went from intermediates to mediums to gain some race pace in the Imola Grand Prix.

Finally, Max Verstappen won the Imola Grand Prix by a comfortable margin while Sergio Perez came second. While Red Bull had one of the best races in this season yet, it was disastrous for Ferrari with Sainz’s DNF and Leclerc’s troubled P6 finish. McLaren driver Lando Norris finished his race with a beautiful P3 position. And following them, Mercedes driver George Russell came fourth, winning a thrilling wheel-to-wheel with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.

Read More: “We will come back stronger tomorrow,” Charles Leclerc determined to turn it around following defeat in Imola Sprint