Verstappen cuts into Hamilton’s lead with 22-second Imola win
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen won a chaotic and crash-halted Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola on Sunday with Lewis Hamilton second for Mercedes and staying ahead in the championship by a single point.
The win, by a commanding 22 seconds at the checkered flag of the season’s second race, was the 11th of the Dutch youngster’s career.
“It was very challenging out there, especially in the beginning, to stay on track, to be honest; it was very slippery,” Verstappen said of an afternoon that started with most drivers on intermediate tires but some on full wets.
Canadian Lance Stroll of Montreal finished seventh for Aston Martin, but was then demoted to eighth, post-race, for leaving the track and gaining an advantage, with Alphatauri’s Pierre Gasly moving up a place.
Hamilton, winner of the Bahrain season-opener, took a crucial bonus point for fastest lap on a roller-coaster afternoon for the seven-time world champion, whose race was almost wrecked by a rare mistake.
The Briton started on pole, his 99th, but dropped from second to ninth after skidding into the gravel and nudging the barriers at Tosa with his car at a standstill and a retirement looming.
He kept the engine running, reversed back out and returned to the pits, a lap behind, for a new front wing.
A collision between teammate Valtteri Bottas and Mercedes-contracted Williams driver George Russell on lap 32 of the 63 threw him a lifeline by bringing out red flags with debris across the track.
The drivers blamed each other.
“I asked him if he was trying to kill us both,” Russell, who had been fighting for ninth place and has been seen as a contender to take Bottas’s seat next year, told Sky Sports television.
Television images were inconclusive about where the blame should fall, but rising star Russell felt the experienced Finn had moved over and nudged him toward the wet edge of the track. Bottas adamantly denied it.
Stewards ruled it a racing incident after hearing both drivers.
“I was coming on Valtteri massively fast, I had the slipstream and the DRS (drag reduction system), and just as I pulled out he jolted very, very slightly to the right, which is a tactical defence that drivers in the past used to do,” Russell said.
“There is a gentleman’s agreement that is not what you do because it is incredibly dangerous.
“In completely dry conditions I’d have been fine, but it just put me onto the wet patch and I lost it … we’re going at 200 mph and you need to respect the speed and the conditions,” Russell added.
With the field closed up again, Hamilton fought his way back to the podium and passed Mclaren’s thirdplace Lando Norris with two laps to go.
“On my side it was not the greatest days,” Hamilton said. “It’s the first time I’ve made a mistake in a long time.”
Norris’s podium finish completed an excellent day’s work for a driver whose deleted best lap in qualifying would have seen him start third rather than seventh.
Hamilton now has 44 points to Verstappen’s 43, with Norris on 27. Mercedes stayed top of the constructors’ standings with 60 points to Red Bull’s 53.
Verstappen seized the lead into turn two on the opening lap, forcing his way through with a great start from third on the grid but making contact with the Mercedes as he went.
There had been drama already before the start, with Sebastian Vettel starting from the pit lane after his Aston Martin’s brakes overheated on the way to the grid and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso spinning off.
There was more mayhem to come, with Canadian Nicholas Latifi of Montreal smashing his Williams into the barriers on the opening lap after contact with Nikita Mazepin’s Haas, bringing out the safety car.
Mick Schumacher, son of Ferrari great Michael, hit the wall at the pit-lane exit and had to continue lapping without a front wing on his Haas due to the pit lane being closed to clear debris.