Emilia Romagna GP: Max Verstappen claims superb victory as Lando Norris beats McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri to second | F1 News

Max Verstappen produced a faultless drive to claim victory in a chaotic Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as Lando Norris beat McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri to second.

Verstappen, starting from second, passed pole-sitter Piastri with an audacious move around the outside of the first chicane on the opening lap, before expertly controlling the race from out front.

The Red Bull driver was cruising to victory before a late Safety Car closed up the pack, but he eased clear once more in a 10-lap sprint to the finish that saw Norris take advantage of having fresher tyres to pass Piastri for second.

Piastri had dropped out of contention for victory after McLaren’s decision to bring him in for an early first stop backfired as he became stuck in traffic while Verstappen and Norris were able to significantly extend their opening stints.

The result sees Piastri’s Drivers’ Championship lead over Norris reduced to 13 points, while Verstappen closes to within 22 points of the Australian in third. McLaren extend their lead at the top of the Constructors’ Championship to 132 points.

Verstappen said: “The start itself wasn’t particularly great but I was still on the outside line, the normal line, so I was like ‘well I’m going to try and send it around the outside’ and it worked really well.

“Of course, that unleashed our pace because when we were in the lead, the car was good. I could look after my tyres.

“Incredibly proud of everyone. It’s been a very important week for us. The car has performed really well.”

Lewis Hamilton produced a superb recovery drive from 12th on the grid to take fourth in first race in Italy for Ferrari.

The seven-time world champion benefitted from both the Safety Car and Virtual Safety Car that preceded it, making several passes in the closing laps to claim his best grand prix finish for Ferrari.

Alex Albon was fifth in a second successive race after the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc gave him the position back on the final lap having come under investigation for forcing the Williams off in a late battle.

George Russell was another to lose out on strategy as he finished seventh after starting third, while a disappointing afternoon for Mercedes was compounded by Kimi Antonelli being forced to retire from his first home race by a throttle issue.

Carlos Sainz was eighth to help Williams consolidate their fifth place in the constructors’ standings.

Isack Hadjar continued his impressive rookie campaign by taking ninth for Racing Bulls, while Yuki Tsunoda produced an impressive recovery from a pit lane start after a huge qualifying crash to take the final point for Red Bull.

Verstappen cruises clear of chaos

Having claimed pole at a track known to be notoriously difficult for overtaking, Piastri appeared in complete control as he got a far better getaway than Verstappen to pull clear on the long run to the first chicane.

However, the Australian seemed overly focused on covering off Russell, who was running behind him on the inside, and left just the slightest gap for Verstappen on the racing line.

The Dutchman didn’t need a second invitation and broke later than Piastri to surge around the outside of the first part of the chicane, earning himself the inside line on exit, and the lead.

He quickly pulled out of DRS range and had pulled clear by almost three seconds when McLaren decided to pit Piastri at the end of lap 13.

That was a reaction to what was going on behind, with Leclerc stopping on lap 10 and already theoretically having undercut Norris, who lost time battling his way past Russell in the early stages.

Piastri’s stop brought him out in front of Leclerc and the other early stoppers, but in a load of traffic behind many of those who hadn’t yet pitted.

Meanwhile, with little to gain from stopping at that point, Verstappen, Norris and the others who were staying out found that their tyres had come back into a better operating window, and extended the stint to the point they were able to switch to a one-stop strategy.

The gap between Verstappen and Norris at the front had been holding around 10 seconds, but it doubled when the latter pitted at the end of lap 28 only for a Virtual Safety Car to be implemented after Esteban Ocon stopped on track moments later.

Piastri, having worked his way back up to third before the VSC, took the opportunity to make his second stop, given the large time loss for pitting under normal race conditions at the circuit.

The Australian, who was seeking a fourth successive race victory, easily passed Albon to get back into the top three, but with big gaps to Norris and Verstappen ahead, the finishing order appeared set.

However, Antonelli’s late failure throttle failure triggered a full Safety Car on lap 46, at which point Verstappen and Norris both stopped for fresh tyres, while Piastri stayed out and as a result held second ahead of his team-mate.

The Mercedes took a while to clear before a restart at the end of lap 53, leaving a 10-lap contest to the finish.

Norris began to use his significantly newer tyres to pressure Piastri, and got through at the first chicane as the pair very nearly made contact.

By that point Verstappen had moved clear once more, and claimed victory for Red Bull in the team’s 400th Grand Prix start by finishing six seconds clear of Norris.

Piastri said: “I just braked too early. It was a good move by Max as well. Disappointing obviously but we made a few wrong calls after that anyway.

“Not our best Sunday, so definitely a lot of things to look at and review. Well done to Max and Red Bull. It was a good move and they had pace today.”

The remaining drama came behind, as Hamilton – on fresh tyres – closed in on his team-mate Leclerc trying to hold off Albon, also on new tyres, for fourth.

The pair got very close in that same chicane and Albon went off track, allowing Hamilton to easily clear him, before cruising past Leclerc moments later.

With the stewards confirming they were investigating Leclerc for forcing Albon off track, Ferrari instructed the Monegasque to let the Williams through to avoid risking a penalty that could have dropped him further back.

Next up in F1’s European triple-header is the Jewel in the Crown, the Monaco Grand Prix on May 23-25, with coverage starting this Friday live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW – no contract, cancel anytime