Max Verstappen said his natural reaction was “to laugh” after overtaking Oscar Piastri at the start in Imola.

An overtake of the season contender which is going to be very hard to beat, it proved a crucial move as Verstappen raced on to a second victory of the season, with Verstappen suggesting that Piastri was too focused on Mercedes’ George Russell to see his move coming, or do anything about it.

Max Verstappen ‘had to laugh’ after jaw-dropping overtake

World Championship leader Piastri pipped Verstappen to pole, but it was the reigning four-time Champion who had the last laugh, Verstappen surging around Piastri at the opening chicane to snatch away the lead, as he went on to take the chequered flag.

Verstappen will look to keep that momentum going at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, but quizzed on that stunning Imola pass, he admitted that he had to watch it back again when he “came home on Sunday”.

“I had to laugh for a moment,” he added.

But, Verstappen clarified that this moment of laughter did not come when he re-watched his overtake on Piastri, but rather immediately after he pulled it off.

“No, not behind the television, but I actually had to laugh for a moment in Turn 3,” he said. “I thought, ‘that one was good!’”

And after doing his own TV analysis, Verstappen came to the conclusion that Piastri was “very concerned” about Russell in the Mercedes heading down to the chicane.

That, therefore, provided Verstappen the freedom and “momentum” he needed to strike.

“I think if you watch it back, you can see that he’s very concerned with George, because he was actually second,” Verstappen claimed. “And I get it.

“I took that momentum of course. Then you can’t react anymore either, because I already have some momentum.”

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Verstappen narrowed the deficit to Piastri and the World Championship lead to 22 points with his Imola victory.

And so, ahead of the Monaco GP, he was asked whether he believes the pace is there in the Red Bull RB21 to take the title fight to McLaren.

“Well, it’s not about believing, it’s about where you finish in the last race,” he responded.

“And we just keep working every race to be better and improve the situation. So a lot can happen.

“I mean, if you asked me last year around this time, I said, ‘Yeah, we’ll win it. No problem. Easy.’ But then a lot changed as well, you know.

“So it’s not, for sure, going to be straightforward anyway to the end of the season. But I also know that I think we still have to improve in areas. But that’s fine. We’ll try to find the improvements.”

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