Imola, Italy – Max Verstappen gave his defense of the Formula 1 title a great impulse with the victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday after a daring advanced to the leader of the Oscar Piastri classification at the beginning.
The Dutch driver built a dominant advantage that was erased when the security car grouped the field. He still clung to winning in front of Lando Norris, who beat his teammate from McLaren Piastri per second with five remaining turns.
Verstappen won his second victory of the season, and first from the Japanese Grand Prix last month, and denied Piastri, which ended third, what would have been his fourth consecutive victory.
Verstappen praised the “fantastic fantastic execution” of its Red Bull team, since the team marked its 400th F1 race with a victory.
Lewis Hamilton recovered from 12 on the network to finish fourth in his first race by Ferrari in Italy.
Hamilton benefited from a late race fight among his teammate Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon de Williams.
Albon complained that Leclerc had pushed him from the track as they fought for the room, and Hamilton passed both drivers before Ferrari finally asked Leclerc to give up fifth to Albon.
George Russell was seventh for Mercedes, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Jr. in the second Williams. Isack Hadjar was ninth for Racing Bulls and Red Bull teammate from Verstappen, Yuki Tsunoda, was the tenth place after starting the last one after an accident in the qualification.
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