Formula 1 News: Verstappen outduels Norris at Imola

Max Verstappen, struggling on his hard tires, held off a charging Lando Norris to win the 2024 Emilia Romagna GP at Imola, after losing to Norris the last time out in Miami.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

With 15 laps to go, Verstappen began to struggle on his hard tires and Norris was closing by about 0.5s to 1.0s per lap and Norris was closing fast.

With 5 laps to go, Norris got almost within DRS range (1.5s behind) as he was ringing the neck out of the McLaren as both drivers were on their limit.

Could Verstappen hold on?

4 laps to go, both drivers set the same lap time.

3 Laps to go and Verstappen turned a lap 0.1s faster than Norris, as the Dutchman dug a little deeper.

Norris was trying all he could to get the gap under 1-second so he could use DRS against Verstappen.

2 laps to go and Norris got the gap down to 1-second. The race was on.

The start of the last lap and the gap was 0.9s.  On the last lap Norris was closing and closing.

Could Verstappen hold him off? The crowd was on its feet.

Yes, by just 0.725s. He did it.

A sensational race.

“Had to work hard for that,” says Verstappen as he crossed the line.

“I think the whole race I had to push flat out to make a gap initially. On the mediums we were quite strong, on the hards it was harder to manage, and I saw Lando closing in. The last 10 laps I was just flat out, I couldn’t afford to make too many mistakes.

“We changed a lot on the car, we didn’t have a lot of information going into the race but from where we started the weekend to now, we can be incredibly pleased with a pole and a win. I’ll take that!”

“Hard luck, almost,” says Norris to his team. “Just lost a little bit too much at the start. Still another trophy, let’s keep this up.”

“It hurts me to say but one or two more laps and I would have had him. Tough, I just lost out to Max too much in the beginning. One or two more laps would have been beautiful but not to be.

“I think we are at a point now where we can happily say we are in a position with Ferrari and Red Bull, we are fighting for first or second now. It’s still a surprise to say it’s frustrating not to win.”

Charles Leclerc could not keep up with the two leaders and finished 7.9s behind. “At least it’s a podium, I’m only very happy when I win, and today we didn’t quite make it. We were very fast on the start of the stint on the hard, but later on [McLaren] were very, very quick.

“But it is incredible to be on the podium with all the Tifosi in Imola. Grazie mille!”

Oscar Piastri was 4th, 14.1s behind, while Carlos Sainz Jr. rounded out the top-5 in the 2nd Ferrari.

It’s his third straight victory at this track for Verstappen, and his fifth win of the season so far. But that was not easy for Verstappen who took his 59th career F1 win.

Verstappen extended his point lead 161 to 113 over Leclerc with Perez dropping down to third with 107 points.

Max Verstappen’s team WON the virtual 24 Hours of Nürburgring, as well as Verstappen, was doing double duty this weekend.

“A great, great job by Max,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. “It was a race of two halves for us, we built up a seven and a half second lead, but then Lando was catching us very quickly.

“The cars are converging with the latest updates, at this circuit McLaren were very quick and Ferrari as well. Halfway through the hard stint we started to lose the temperature in the tire, McLaren worked it harder. It was this day with this tire on this circuit, next weekend is a completely different challenge.”

Lewis Hamilton was 6th after George Russel made a late 2nd stop on soft tires to get the fast lap point, with Sergio Perez recovering from P11 on the grid to eighth a massive 54 seconds behind his teammate in the same Red Bull car.

Lance Stroll was ninth, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda in 10th and the final point paying position. Nico Hülkenberg missed out in P11, ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo.

Fernando Alonso had spent much of the afternoon running near the rear of the pack in what has been a challenging weekend for the Spaniard. He retired his Aston Martin in the latter stages, classifying him in P19.

The only other retiree was Alex Albon, who was forced to retire his Williams earlier in the Grand Prix.

McLaren has caught Red Bull is speed, the remainder of the championship battle will be epic.

Next race up is Monaco. Can Verstappen win a record 9th straight pole and another win?

2024 Emilia Romagna GP at Imola Race Results – 63 laps