Max Verstappen clings to victory at F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Lando Norris gave Max Verstappen a reason to sweat in Imola

This week at the Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was about slamming doors for Max Verstappen. After the Red Bull driver struggled during Friday’s dual practice sessions in the upgraded RB20, many believed the door was open for another team — perhaps McLaren or home favorite Ferrari — to deny Verstappen his eighth-straight pole position. But with a thunderous performance on Saturday, Verstappen slammed that door shut, putting himself P1 for the start of the race at historic Imola.

But he had more doors to close on Sunday.

The first came right at the start. With overtaking coming a premium at Imola, the best chance drivers such as Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, and Carlos Sainz Jr. had to bring the fight to Verstappen was to catch him at the start.

Within the first few turns after the lights went out, Verstappen closed that door.

At the very end of his formation lap, Verstappen pulled his RB20 into the grid box at a slight angle, giving himself the ideal line into Turn 1. While he and Norris, who was starting alongside him in P2, got off to similar starts Verstappen was able to maintain a lead through Turn 1 and into the early chicane at Tamburello, working through Turns 2, 3, and 4. And while for a moment Norris hung around Verstappen, threatening to get within one second of Verstappen — and into critical DRS range — eventually the RB20 pulled away, leaving the rest of the grid fighting for P2.

But the fight was not over.

With the remaining laps ticking down into single digits, Norris closed again. On Lap 57, the McLaren driver was just two seconds behind Verstappen, and closing fast. Complicating matters for Verstappen was the fact he was driving under a black-and-white flag, having exceeded track limits three times already. One more violation and Verstappen would be hit with a five-second penalty, gifting Norris the win.

It was a true “rock and a hard place” situation for Verstappen. Push his RB20 to the limit, and he might give the game away. Drive too conservatively, and he might give the game away. Lap by lap, Norris cut into Verstappen’s lead, and it seemed as if the McLaren was going to catch him for the checkered flag.

Behind him, Norris continued to push, putting his MCL38 to the limit on each of the final laps. “I’m pushing as much as I can, mate,” declared Noris over the radio to his team on Lap 57.

On Lap 61, Verstappen reported that his battery was almost empty. His rear-view mirrors were filled with the papaya orange of Norris’s MCL38. The fight was on, and the door was open.

It came down to the final three miles, the final lap, and Norris was within one second. Could he close the gap, and stun Verstappen in Imola?

He could not, as Verstappen fended Norris off over the final few turns, beating Norris by seven-tenths of a second.

Door closed, again.

“I think the whole race I had to push flat out,” said Verstappen to Vicky Piria. “I saw Lando closing in, the last ten laps were just flat out … super happy of course to win here today. We changed a lot on the car [after Friday],” added Verstappen. “From where we started the weekend to now we can be incredibly pleased.”

As Alex Jacques described it on F1TV, Norris asked the question, and Verstappen supplied the answer.

Following qualifying on Saturday, Norris called anyone who doubted Verstappen’s ability to deliver a strong performance “stupid” in the FIA Press Conference. “I don’t know, Max hasn’t had the smoothest weekend, but I think if anyone doubted Red Bull or him coming back and doing a good job in qualifying, they’re a bit stupid. So, yeah, I think we expected them to be back on track,” said Norris.

Maybe Verstappen is just great at slamming doors, and shattering dreams.

Here are the full results, as well as some more winners and losers, from the F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix:

Winners: McLaren

Verstappen and Red Bull might have won the battle.

But McLaren truly looks like they could, someday, win the war.

Norris was not able to catch Verstappen at the checkered flag, but Norris and McLaren were able to bring the fight to Red Bull at the front. And with Oscar Piastri finishing in fourth place, the team pulled together 30 huge points between the two drivers, a substantial haul for the team.

Red Bull may very well go on to win their third-straight Constructors’ Championship, and they are certainly the favorites.

But the gap seems to be closing, with McLaren certainly in the mix.

“It hurts me to say but one or two more laps, I think I would have had him,” described Norris trackside to Vicky Piria. “One or two more laps would have been beautiful.

“I think we’re at a point now where I think we can say we are with Ferrari and Red Bull … it’s just we’re fighting for first or second now. It’s still a surprise to say it’s frustrating not to win, but after last weekend and the improvements we’ve made it’s what we should start to expect.”

This year might be a bridge too far for McLaren to truly challenge Red Bull for P1 in the Constructors’ Championship, as Red Bull leave Imola 56 points clear of Ferrari and 114 points ahead of McLaren. But following his win at the Miami Grand Prix, Norris made it clear that by next season, a challenge for a title was their aim. “Next year? Yes, one hundred percent. One hundred percent,” said Norris to Sky Sports F1 last week. “One hundred percent.

“But I’m saying I sit with my feet on the ground, so, yeah, absolutely. I wanna believe. We’ve got two good great drivers. But as Zak [Brown] normally says, I’ve got an amazing team behind me. We have an amazing team behind us.

“So, as much as I said at the beginning of this year we can win races, I wanna believe, and I should have the confidence to say, next year we can go for more.

“We can go for the next step, but, we have a lot more work to do, and we’re working hard to to try and achieve it.”

Today, that goal seems closer than ever.

Winners: Ferrari

While McLaren might grab the headlines, with Norris’s late charge and Piastri’s fourth-place finish, it was also a solid weekend for Ferrari in their home race. Charles Leclerc held on for a podium finish of his own with a P3, and Carlos Sainz Jr. finished fifth, to give the Scuderia a solid host of points at Imola.

With that podium finish, Leclerc became the first Ferrari driver to stand on a podium at Imola since Michael Schumacher back in 2006:

Throughout the week it looked as if Ferrari might pose the biggest threat to Red Bull. While it was Norris in the MCL38 who posed the sternest test for Verstappen on Sunday, Ferrari’s ability to put two drivers inside the top five yet again showed that they remain a force on the grid.

And it kept the door open for their own challenge to Red Bull this season.

Winner: Lance Stroll

One of the other storylines entering Sunday was whether Aston Martin would be able to salvage something from the weekend. With Fernando Alonso starting from pit lane after the team made some changes to his AMR24 overnight, and Lance Stroll starting outside the points, it was going to take something special for Aston Martin to add to their account at Imola.

They got something special from Stroll.

The Canadian driver fought through the field and, thanks to some important overtakes in the second half of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix he charged into the points. Stroll caught Nico Hülkenberg for P10 on Lap 47, and a few laps later squeezed by Yuki Tsunoda for P9. He came across the line in ninth place, a hard-earned points finish in his 150th F1 start.

Adding two potentially critical points to their tally for the year.

Losers: Williams

This was a dismal weekend for Williams.

Both Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant started at the back of the field, and outside the points. Sargeant failed to post a lap time during qualifying on Saturday, with all his times deleted for exceeding track limits. While Albon was able to advance to Q2, his day ended there, as he qualified 14th.

That was, arguably, the high-water mark of their weekend.

Albon in particular endured a tough afternoon, as an early pit stop saw him rejoin the fight was an improperly-attached tire. He lumbered around the Imola circuit and managed to get back to the pits, but was hit with a penalty for an unsafe release. He made multiple pit stops on the afternoon, and eventually retired the car before the finish.

As for Sargeant — who is “at risk” for his spot with the team in 2025 according to Team Principal James Vowles — he stayed in the fight, but only managed a 17th-place result.

Williams were the darlings of the field last year, with Albon leading them to a shocking seventh-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship standings. But with the team yet to finish in the points this season, they are going to need somethign special over the rest of the season to match that result.

Winner: Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel was not one of the 20 drivers to start the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

But before the lights went out, the former champion was one of the clear winners.

The return of F1 to Imola after an absence, as last year’s grand prix was canceled due to flooding in the region, was sure to be an emotional one. But that was just one reason that the grid returned to Imola with heavy hearts. The other? This weekend marked 30 years since the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, also held at Imola, a weekend that saw the tragic deaths of both Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna.

Tributes poured in for both drivers throughout the week, with Vettel at the front of the efforts. The retired F1 champion led a lap around the circuit for the grid on Thursday, and ahead of today’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Vettel climbed into Senna’s McLaren MP4/8, the car the legend drove in 1993, for a lap around Imola.

As he closed out that lap Vettel held two flags aloft, a Brazilian flag in Senna’s honor, and an Austrian flag in Ratzenberger’s honor. After climbing out of the MP4/8, Vettel continued his tribute:

You can watch the entire performance from Vettel here:

He was not in the race itself.

But Vettel was one of the winners, along with all of us, thanks to this beautiful tribute.

Winners: The fans

Saturday’s thrilling qualifying session was just the appetizer.

Sunday was the main course, and it was a delicious one at that.

For the first two thirds of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix it looked as if the result was inevitable, as it seemed Verstappen was going to simply drive away from the field as he had done so many times before. But over the closing stages Norris reeled him in, setting us all up for a true fight to the checkered flag.

While Verstappen won that fight, the mere fact that the matter was in doubt as the laps ticked down signaled that this season might truly be different than the most recent iterations of F1.

Verstappen remains the favorite for the Drivers’ Championship, and Red Bull for the Constructors’, and rightly so. But the margins do seem to be shrinking, and fast. Ferrari and McLaren in particular seem to be closing the gap, and the door seems slightly open for a title fight.

Again, Verstappen and Red Bull may slam that door shut over the rest of the season, as they have done so many times before. But after how the year started, with it appearing Verstappen and Red Bull were going to pull away as they did a year ago, it seems that the matter is far from settled as the grid heads to Monaco.

Providing thrills for us all so far this season.