Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez finished first and second at Imola GP to bring Red Bull back into the title hunt as Ferrari faltered at home in Italy.
Max Verstappen won a dramatic wet-dry Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as championship leader Charles Leclerc spun late on to finish sixth with his teammate Carlos Sainz retiring early in the race to cap a miserable run for Ferrari.
The Dutchman topped Saturday’s Sprint and carried the momentum into the race as led off the line with his teammate Perez joining him at the front while Leclerc momentarily dropped to fourth behind Lando Norris.
The Safety Car emerged on the opening lap as Daniel Ricciardo tipped Carlos Sainz into the gravel and out of the race for the second Grand Prix in Ferrari’s first blow of the afternoon.
With the track drying quickly all the drivers began to swap from inters to mediums on Lap 19 with Perez undercutting the Ferrari before Verstappen, who led Leclerc into the pits joining one lap later.
The Monegasque emerged just ahead of the Mexican, but Perez skated past for P2 with warmer tires and then kept the Ferrari at bay.
A late gamble to pit for softs from P3 from Leclerc saw the Red Bulls follow suit and regain the lead, but on Lap 54 – again in chase of Perez – the championship leader spun and hit the wall at Variante Alta.
The incident dropped him down to ninth having had to pit for a new nose and softs before he managed to recover to P6 at the flag.
Lando Norris, therefore, took the final podium place, promoted twice with Sainz retiring and Leclerc going off track.
Mercedes’ George Russell enjoyed a brilliant start and was up seven places to P4 as the chequered flag loomed, holding off Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas by under a second despite a late duel with the driver he replaced at the Silver Arrows.
Yuki Tsunoda finished seventh for AlphaTauri, passing Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel (P8) late on.
Haas’s Kevin Magnussen ran as high as P5 thanks to another blistering start but fell back down the order to ninth. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10, a double-points haul for the team that entered Imola on zero.
Alex Albon’s solid showing put him 11th, ahead of AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly – who couldn’t pry his way past even with DRS (which was activated when the track was deemed dry enough on Lap 34).
Lewis Hamilton was next after another dismal showing for the 7-time champion with the Mercedes driver having been unceremoniously lapped by Verstappen on Lap 40, to finish 13th – Esteban Ocon finishing 11th but dropping to 14th thanks to a five-second penalty for an unsafe release in the pitlane.
Zhou Guanyu started from the pit lane after his Sprint crash, the Alfa Romeo driver taking P15 ahead of Williams’ Nicholas Latifi.
In 17th was Mick Schumacher, the Haas driver having spun twice on Sunday afternoon – while Daniel Ricciardo was last and 18th after his Lap 1 tangle with Sainz, pitting again for hards midway through the race in a fruitless strategy.
Along with Sainz, compatriot Fernando Alonso was the other DNF having lost a chunk of his sidepod, Schumacher having lost control and hit the Alpine’s flanks on Lap 1.
After the Imola GP, the gap between Verstappen and Leclerc is down to 27 points.
With Red Bull seemingly putting their troubles behind them and matching Ferrari for pace, we are in for another remarkable season of racing.
