Yahoo Autos Max Verstappen Caps Perfect Weekend at F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
Ferrari’s shining start to 2022 came to a resounding halt in front of its home fans at Imola, Italy, on Sunday as Red Bull executed a perfect race result for the first time in six years.
Autoweek breaks down the good and not so good of Formula 1’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Red Bull’s Perfect Race
It was, to quote Max Verstappen, a simply lovely race for Red Bull.
Verstappen was in total control of the 63-lap race from the outset, cruising clear in wet conditions, before maintaining a sizeable buffer throughout the dry spell of proceedings. He finished a comfortable 16.5 seconds ahead of runner-up and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez. Lando Norris completed the podium, 34.8 seconds back.
With the Sprint victory on Saturday, the Grand Prix win and the fastest lap in Sunday's race, Verstappen gobbled up the maximum 34 points on offer. It was a commanding display from the reigning World Champion. To make matters even better, Sergio Perez rode a rapid start to move into second spot, which he preserved, to secure Red Bull’s first 1-2 since the 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix. It enabled Red Bull to slice into Ferrari’s Constructors’ lead and whittle it to just 11 points.
“We needed a good weekend, I didn’t expect it to be like this, but it is incredible,” said Verstappen. “A 1-2, maximum points scored, and the way we handled the race, we didn’t make any mistakes, made the right calls, and controlled the race. It of course it seemed probably easy on TV but you have to be focused, it can be easy to go off the track on a wet patch, but just managed that, the car handled really well. We could look after the tires nicely, just a very positive weekend.”
Ferrari’s home disaster
The Tifosi came, they expected, but in the end Ferrari had a torrid outcome as its race prospects collapsed.
It unravelled from the very first moment. Charles Leclerc slipped from second to fourth off the line but further behind teammate Carlos Sainz fared worse. Sainz and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo clashed through the first chicane, sending the Ferrari into the gravel, where it became beached. After his self-inflicted Australia exit this was a more unfortunate incident but it was more big points lost for the Spaniard.
Leclerc recovered to third but in his pursuit of Perez he clobbered the entry kerb to the Gresini chicane and spun into the barriers. Fortunately for the title leader, the impact was light but it necessitated an unscheduled pit stop for repairs and he tumbled to ninth. Leclerc ultimately salvaged sixth but it was a dismal outcome for Ferrari on a weekend that promised so much more.
“I believe that the spin should not have happened today,” Leclerc said. “I mean P3 was the best I could do, we didn’t have the pace for much more and I was too greedy and I paid the price for it and lost seven potential points compared to my third place I was before. It is a shame, it’s seven points that are valuable at the end of the championship for sure, this shouldn’t happen again. It’s only seven points today but it could be more the next time, so I need to be careful for that.”
Leclerc still holds a comfortable 27-point buffer—an advantage he surely would have signed up for if told preseason—but it was the first major mistake of what will be a very long season.
McLaren on the rise
McLaren was left with only one in the race after Ricciardo’s first-lap connection with Sainz but its sole representative up front utterly shone.
Lando Norris kept out of trouble and was holding down fourth place through much of the race, and when Leclerc erred, the Briton found himself in third spot, where he remained through to the checkered flag. It was quite some turnaround for Norris and McLaren, after the horror show of Bahrain, which prompted legitimate fears that the team could spend the year merely striving to battle for points.
Instead, there’s a trophy heading back to Woking. It was an outstanding weekend from Norris at a circuit where he claimed a podium at last year’s event as well.
“Surprised, I guess, to be here,” he said. “It feels amazing. From where we were four weeks ago, in Bahrain, to being on a podium. I genuinely didn’t think I’d be on the podium all year in Bahrain, it’s a shock. With how much quicker the Red Bulls and Ferraris are it is hard to ever imagine yourself on the podium.
"We beat two cars who are probably a second a lap quicker than us and one ended up in the wall and one in the gravel. So (whether we have) the third, fourth, or fifth-best car, we just executed a great race, the car was good, I had confidence, that’s what we needed.”
Schumacher Still Not Producing
The promise shown at times by Mick Schumacher in his rookie campaign is already becoming a distant memory.
With both Aston Martin drivers scoring at Imola—a welcome result for an under-pressure organization—only Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi have failed to score among the full-time drivers.
That does not reflect well on Schumacher given the haul of 15 points amassed by Kevin Magnussen, despite Magnussen's late addition to the Haas seat vacated by the ousted Nikita Mazepin. Schumacher has yet to have a clean race this year. He remains something of a half-rookie, given how he spent 2021 lumbered with non-competitive machinery at the back, but he needs to show something soon in order to kick-start his season.
At Imola, a clumsy clash with Fernando Alonso sent him spinning on the opening lap. Any prospects of recovering were squandered when he spun through the Gresini chicane later on. The 17th-place finish came after a weekend in which any prospective route to Ferrari, which has supported his career since 2019, was blocked until at least 2025 following Sainz’s contract extension.
Fine margins can make the difference in a competitive midfield but Schumacher is consistently falling on the wrong side of them.
“Unfortunately, I lost our position right at the beginning and then had to recover from there," Schumacher said. "It was quite difficult. The Williams was very quick in the straights, so no chance for me there to get by. We were hoping we had more pace. It was quite unfortunate, but we live and we learn, we try to look ahead and do it better next time.”
F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
Results
Max Verstappen, Red Bull, 63 laps
Sergio Perez, Red Bull, +16.5 seconds
Lando Norris, McLaren, +34.8
George Russell, Mercedes, +42.5
Valterri Bottas, Alfa Romeo, +43.1
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, +56.0
Yuki Tsunoda, AlfaTauri, +1:01.1
Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin, +1:10.8
Kevin Magnussen, Haas, +1:15.2
Lance Stroll, Aston Martin, +1 lap
Alexander Albon, Williams, +1 lap
Pierre Gasly, AlphaTauri, +1 lap
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, +1 lap
Esteban Ocon, Alpine, +1 lap
Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo, +1 lap
Nicholas Latifi, Williams, +1 lap
Mick Schumacher, Haas, +1 lap
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren, +1 lap
Fernando Alonso, Alpine, +57 laps
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari, +63 laps
Drivers' Standings
Charles Leclerc 86
Max Verstappen 59
Sergio Perez 54
George Russell 49
Carlos Sainz Jr. 38
Lando Norris 35
Lewis Hamilton 28
Valtteri Bottas 24
Esteban Ocon 20
Kevin Magnussen 15
Daniel Ricciardo 11
Yuki Tsunoda 10
Pierre Gasly 6
Sebastian Vettel 4
Fernando Alonso 2
Guanyu Zhou 1
Alexander Albon 1
Lance Stroll 1
Mick Schumacher 0
Nico Hulkenberg 0
Nicholas Latifi 0
Constructors' Standings
Ferrari 112
Red Bull 99
Mercedes 77
McLaren 39
Alfa Romeo 23
Alpine 22
AlphaTauri 16
Haas 14
Aston Martin 5
Williams 1
