F1: Verstappen outduels Leclerc to win Imola Sprint race
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen lost the lead from his pole position to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc off the line at the start, but Verstappen hunted Leclerc down over the 21-lap Sprint race at Imola and made the pass for the lead with 1-lap to go for the victory.
Over the final lap Verstappen pulled away from the Ferrari, that was struggling on his worn tires, and finished 2.975s ahead at the line and took 8 points for the victory while point leader Verstappen added 7 points to his tally.
“I think we were better on our tires at the end of the race. It was fast, I was pushing quite a bit,” said Verstappen.
“Yeah the start was really bad, I don’t know why, maybe too much wheelspin. I think Charles ran out of tires, today it worked out for us to be on this compound but I don’t know about tomorrow. I’m of course happy about today, but tomorrow might be a bit different.”
“It’s still a front-row start, we struggled with the tires at the end, we need to analyze that. We will work and come back strong tomorrow. Every time we are in Italy we have so much support, it’s amazing,” said Leclerc.
Sergio Perez came home 3rd in the #11 Red Bull and set the fastest lap of the race.
Plenty of overtakes which bodes well for tomorrow, and some interesting tire wear issues for Ferrari, despite Leclerc running in free air.
By contrast, Verstappen and Perez seemed to have plenty of tire life left and had it lasted a couple more laps, Perez would have been right on Leclerc’s tail.
“We needed to minimize the damage from yesterday,” said Perez. “Today we managed to recover so we should be in the fight tomorrow. It would be ideal to get a 1-2, that would be great for us, probably not for the Tifosi, but we try!”
Carlos Sainz removed from his 10th starting spot to finish 4th in the #55 Ferrari, while Lando Norris rounded out the top-5.
Once again, George Russell beat his teammate Lewis Hamilton, calling into question just how good Hamilton really was all these years when he always had the best car.
Sprint Race Results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | LAPS | BEHIND |
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing RBPT | 21 | +0.000s |
| 2 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 21 | +2.975s |
| 3 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing RBPT | 21 | +4.721s |
| 4 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 21 | +17.578s |
| 5 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 21 | +24.561s |
| 6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren Mercedes | 21 | +27.740s |
| 7 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo Ferrari | 21 | +28.133s |
| 8 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas Ferrari | 21 | +30.712s |
| 9 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine Renault | 21 | +32.278s |
| 10 | 47 | Mick Schumacher | Haas Ferrari | 21 | +33.773s |
| 11 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 21 | +36.284s |
| 12 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri RBPT | 21 | +38.298s |
| 13 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 21 | +40.177s |
| 14 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 21 | +41.459s |
| 15 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 21 | +42.910s |
| 16 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | 21 | +43.517s |
| 17 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri RBPT | 21 | +43.794s |
| 18 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | 21 | +48.871s |
| 19 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams Mercedes | 21 | +52.017s |
| NC | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo Ferrari | 0 | DNF |