Max Verstappen’s one sweeping pass around the outside of Tamburello was more crucial than Oscar Piastri’s seven or so as the Dutchman used his to pass Piastri on the opening lap to set up the victory at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Comfortably ahead of the chasing McLarens as questions were asked about Piastri’s two-stopper, Verstappen survived a Safety Car restart on Lap 54 to clinch his second win of the season ahead of Lando Norris and Piastri.

Max Verstappen triumphs over McLaren’s split strategy

Pole-sitter Oscar Piastri lined up with his McLaren pointed slightly towards P2’s Max Verstappen for the fourth successive McLaren v Verstappen front row battle. The Australian flew off the line before Verstappen swooped around the outside at Tamburello to lead the Grand Prix.

George Russell was third ahead of Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz. Charles Leclerc made up one place to run 10th, but Lewis Hamilton – starting on the hard tyres – dropped to 13th. Esteban Ocon pitted at end of the first lap, swapping his medium tyres for hard Pirellis. An early one-stop gamble from Haas?

Leclerc was up to ninth on Lap 4 as he overtook Pierre Gasly, with the Alpine driver off into the dirt. And found himself in a DRS train with the drivers from Russell in third to Hamilton in 12th separated by eight seconds.

Hamilton was piling the pressure on Kimi Antonelli, all over the back of the Mercedes rookie. A mistake from Franco Colapinto, wheels in the dirt, dropped him to 17th.

Lap 9, Russell had Norris on his rear wing and told Mercedes he didn’t believe his used medium tyres would make it to the target. Norris tried to attack but found the gap disappear, two wheels on the grass. Norris made it through on Lap 11, passing Russell on the outside of the Villeneuve chicane.

The pit stops began 11 laps into the 63-lap race, Leclerc, followed by Russell and Carlos Sainz. Fernando Alonso was the next in, Leclerc getting the undercut on all of them. It has Piastri in on Lap 14, but a slow front right change cost the Australian valuable time.

Piastri found himself running P11 and came up behind Verstappen’s team-mate, Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver was told to do what he could to “hold” Piastri up. Piastri pulled a Verstappen on Tsunoda, late on the brakes and through at the chicane. The McLaren driver continued his charge with a simple pass on Oliver Bearman and then Colapinto.

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Hamilton urged Ferrari to pit him to “undercut” the drivers ahead of him but was told “there is no gap right now”. Finding the gap and clear air was proving to be an issue with Norris running at Piastri’s pace despite being on old tyres. Sainz queried his team-mate Alex Albon’s time, and replied: “It’s clearly a one stop”. Leclerc summed up the biggest problem: “F**k, it’s the f**king DRS train.”

Piastri made short work of Hamilton through the favourite overtaking spot, Tamburello, before seeing off Antonelli and then the Racing Bulls of Isack Hadjar. He was, however, over 30 seconds down on race leader Verstappen, with Norris 22s up the road from his team-mate. Norris pitted on Lap 29, coming out behind Hamilton and Leclerc.

The VSC was out seconds later, Ocon pulled over on the side of the track having been told by Haas to “stop the car”. It opened the door for Verstappen to take a cheap pit stop, in from the lead and out in the lead. Albon also pitted, Piastri back up to second place. Several other drivers also stopped, Piastri also in a second time.

The race resumed with Verstappen 28s ahead of Norris, Albon and Piastri third and fourth, ahead of Hadjar, Antonelli, Hamilton. Alonso and Stroll were back in front of Leclerc. Hamilton, finally, overtook Antonelli at Tamburello on Lap 34. Sainz and Tsunoda had a moment with the Spaniard complaining about the Red Bull driver “touching” him. The stewards didn’t see a cause to investigate.

As the overtakes continued, Hamilton took fifth off Hadjar, Russell overtook Alonso for 10th, Hulkenberg muscled through on Alonso, and Piastri climbed onto the podium with an overtake on Albon. Leclerc joined his team-mate in passing Hadar, the Scuderia drivers P5 and P6 with 20 laps to go.

Antonelli’s first home Grand Prix ended on Lap 46 as he pulled over onto the same piece of grass as Ocon before him, only this time it was a Safety Car. “I’ve got an issue,” he said as he ground to a halt. The mechanics were out in full force in the pit lane, with Verstappen the first in followed by Norris. And through went Piastri. Hamilton and Hadjar stopped but Leclerc was told he didn’t have tyres so had to stay out.

The race resumed on Lap 54, Verstappen bunching up the field before flooring it to put metres between himself and Piastri, while Norris had Leclerc in his mirrors. Tsunoda made his way into the top ten with a pass on Hulkenberg. Verstappen was out of DRS range of Piastri when it was enabled, pulling away from the Australia who had Norris behind him. But would team orders come? They didn’t, Norris doing it himself to run second.

Behind them, Leclerc was holding on desperately against Albon, who was all over his rear wing. Their battle allowed Hamilton to close up on the Williams driver, the trio separated by 1.5s with three to go. Albon tried to pass Leclerc around the outside but found himself in the dirt and dropped to sixth behind Hamilton. Hamilton easily overtook Leclerc to run fifth while Leclerc and Albon continued to battle, the Williams driver passing the Ferrari.

Verstappen raced his way to the victory, six seconds ahead of Norris, with Piastri making it a double McLaren podium. Hamilton was fourth ahead of Albon and Leclerc with Russell, Sainz, Hadjar and Tsunoda completing the points.

Emilia Romagna GP result

1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing winner
2 Lando Norris McLaren +6.109
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +12.956
4 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari +14.356
5 Alexander Albon Williams +17.945
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +20.774
7 George Russell Mercedes +22.034
8 Carlos Sainz Williams +22.898
9 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls +23.586
10 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull Racing +26.446
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin +27.250
12 Nico Hulkenberg Kick Sauber +30.296
13 Pierre Gasly Alpine +31.424
14 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls +32.511
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +32.993
16 Franco Colapinto Alpine +33.411
17 Oliver Bearman Haas F1 Team +33.808
18 Gabriel Bortoleto Kick Sauber +38.572

Did not finish

Kimi Antonelli Mercedes
Esteban Ocon Haas

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