Verstappen holds off Norris to win Emilia Romagna Grand Prix: Formula One – as it happened
Max Verstappen of Red Bull resisted a late charge from McLaren’s Lando Norris to stretch his lead in the drivers’ championship
Updated
Red Bull Racing's Dutch driver Max Verstappen crosses the finish line to win the Emilia Romagna Formula One Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari.
Photograph: Luca Bruno/AFP/Getty Images
Charles Leclerc has a chat. He is asked: Could Ferrari have done any more today? “Honestly, I don’t think so. We had to cover for Oscar [Piastri] in the first stint. No way we can lose track position on a track like this … Oscar was pushing hard … that made it difficult for me to manage tyres.
“I was coming back on Lando, I thought, ‘OK, maybe I can put him under pressure’ … they [McLaren] were strong, but today, I really believe it was about track position. Our race pace is very strong … what makes me optimistic is if I look at the data … we lost everything in the straights … We’ve got to look into it: it’s nothing that is not possible to change. Once we’ve fixed that, we’ve got a real shot of going back on the top step of the podium.”
Why didn’t it quite work out for Oscar Piastri today? “It was a consequence of where we started,” he says. “The last two weekend have been good for the team and for me personally. Two of my best weekends in F1. I think I did all I could, what I could control.”
Zak Brown, McLaren’s managing director, on the team’s display today: “It’s exciting for Monaco. It’s exciting for the rest of the year … Red Bull are still the team to beat. And we’ve got to catch Ferrari … but I see no reason, if we keep doing what we’re doing, that Lando and Oscar aren’t going to win more races this year.”
Lando Norris hugs it out with his team. It’s quite remarkable how close he came to a second straight grand prix win … as Horner said, that McLaren is a quick car. Exciting times ahead for the season, with Ferrari looking fast too.
“He’s been pushed very hard by Lando today,” says Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, of today’s excitement against McLaren. Then he conspicuously fails to remember the name of the new undisputed world heavyweight champion, Oleksandr Usyk:
“You’ve got two guys going at it like Tyson Fury and … in the fight last night.”
“Things don’t stand still in Formula 1. McLaren have made a step, Ferrari have made a step. We’re going to keep that level of development coming thorugh.”
Who will be Red Bull’s biggest rivals next week in Monaco, Horner is asked:
“McLaren have got a very fast car at the moment … but Ferrari are ‘in the noise’ with them as well. It’s good for you guys [media]. It’s great to win a race like that when you’ve been pushed very hard …
“[For Max] to win a race like that, when you haven’t buckled under the pressure, is fantastic.”
There are 17 races still to go. This Formula 1 season is going to be feel more gruelling than your standard Premier League campaign. Speaking of which:
Did Norris think, with a few more laps, the victory was his?
“Yeah. It hurts me to say. One or two more laps and I think I would have had him. Tough. A shame. I fought hard until the final laps … it was a tough first half, a better second half … one or two more laps would have been beautiful. But just not today.
“We are at the point now, we can happily say, we’re in the [same] position as Ferrari and Red Bull … we’re fighting for first and second now … it’s still a surprise to be disappointed not to win. But after the improvements we made at the last race, it’s what we should expect.”
“Yeah, I think the whole race I had to push flat out, to make a gap initially … on the mediums we were quite strong … the last 10, 15 laps I had no grip, I was sliding a lot. It was difficult when the tyres are not working anymore and you have to go flat out. I couldn’t afford to make any mistakes. But I’m super happy to win here today.
“We changed a lot on the car, we didn’t have a lot of information going into the race … but I’ll take that.”
It looked like being a procession up front for most of the race, but that was really exciting at the end. Red Bull’s Verstappen lost a lot of pace in the closing laps, and Norris closed to within around a second, having trailed by 6 or 7sec. But a few errors by Norris appeared to cost him when he was almost in DRS range …
It will be interesting to hear Verstappen’s and Norris’s thoughts on that battle. Are we seeing the start of a really big rivalry?
“Unlucky. Almost,” Norris tells his team. “We just lost too much in the beginning … but well done everyone … A lot of points, another trophy. Let’s keep it up.”
“I had to work for that,” says Verstappen on team radio. “Whoo! We did a great race, considering how the weekend started … I had to work hard for that.”
Max Verstappen wins the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix!
The world champion holds on for the win for Red Bull! Norris pushed him all the way at the end for his second grand prix win, but the Dutchman edged home. A brilliant race in the end.
Max Verstappen wins the grand prix. Photograph: Hollandse Hoogte/REX/Shutterstock
Lap 61/63: Three laps to go. It’s 1.367sec the lead for Verstappen … but I think the champion is going to hold on for victory. Did Norris take something out of his tyres with those mistakes?
Looks like Alonso, in last place, is going to retire … but no! He comes back out. “Must be pitstop practice,” says Kravitz.
Lap 58/63: It’s holding at around 1.7sec. There was a mistake by Norris that cost him a fraction of a second. In fact at least two errors on a bit of a scruffy lap.
Lap 53/63: Seems like Verstappen is complaining about his tyres. He’s lost pace. Norris is catching up … he’s 4.2sec behind. But can he make a real race of it?
Lap 51/63: Alpine sent Gasly out with a two-stop strategy. He’s now running 17th and they’re hoping to make up some places late in the race, the team principal, Bruno Famin, tells Sky.
Lap 47/63: “George Russell is struggling for pace,” says Ted Kravitz of one of those Mercedes machines. “It’s sliding at the front, and sliding at the rear, and the lap times show that.”
