IMOLA. Only Michael Schumacher had won three times in a row at Imola, in Ferrari’s golden years. Here is yet another masterpiece by Max Verstappen, who has reached 59 career successes, five out of seven seasonal matches. Old school circuit and old school race, led from start to finish with the only parenthesis of the obligatory pit stop at the 25th of the 63 scheduled laps and the great effort to contain Lando Norris’ comeback in the final kilometres. There is a lot of the Dutch in Red Bull’s success, for confirmation ask Sergio Perez: with the same car, 11th and humiliated in qualifying, therefore always at the back of the race, in the useless search for a safety car ( very long first stint on the hard) never arrived. It wasn’t an easy weekend for the RB20, yet the three-time world champion – involved between last night and this morning also in two two-hour rounds of the virtual 24 Hours of the Nurburgring on the iRacing platform for the RedLine team – was able to overturn what seen in Friday’s free practice, helping the team to transform a single-seater which in the end still proved to be a winner. Only in the final laps was Super Max, who maintained a lead of 7-8 seconds for a long time, threatened by the Englishman who had won two weeks ago in Miami, who went so far as to smell the leader’s exhaust.
Much closer opponents
The Made in Italy and Emilia-Romagna GP said that McLaren and Ferrari have come significantly closer to the world champions, especially since this track is certainly not unfavorable to the characteristics of Red Bull. The updates did their job, given the gaps reduced at the finish line. Norris arrived in the wake of Verstappen, Charles Leclerc – who even deluded himself into thinking he could attack the Englishman with about fifteen laps to go – less than seven seconds. Ferrari exits their home GP as third place, but aware that the path they have taken – although perhaps longer than expected – is the right one, even if they only bring home Charles’ fourth podium of the season, who rose to second place in the World Championship. Much of today’s verdict was written in qualifying, with Max Verstappen who was able to exploit the slipstream offered by Nico Hulkenberg to take his eighth consecutive pole, the seventh out of seven at the start of the season, and then confirmed his position at the first curve. Disappointment for Carlos Sainz, fifth and passed by Oscar Piastri at the pit stop: the Spaniard made it four laps later than the Australian, a delay that was decisive.
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