Red Bull’s Max Verstappen believes his dominant weekend at 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix will serve as a “great boost” to his title chances.
Having taken one victory in-between two retirements in the opening three rounds which left him with a 46-point deficit coming into this weekend, Verstappen enjoyed a strong weekend as he achieved victories in the Sprint and main race from pole position with fastest lap as well.
Verstappen in fact dominated the main race from lights to flag unchallenged to claim a maximum points haul of 34 points with Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez finishing second to give Red Bull a first one-two finish since 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix, which Verstappen described as “just incredible.”
The result lifted Verstappen from sixth to second in the drivers’ standings as he cut his deficit by 19 points to now sit 27 points behind Leclerc.
The 24 year-old however admitted that he initially didn’t expect the weekend to unfold as it did as he said: “It was more or less a perfect weekend, everything went well for us and we’ll of course enjoy today.
“I scored the maximum amount of points this weekend and we can be really proud of that as a Team, it’s a great boost.”
Wet-to-dry conditions however proved the biggest challenge of the race as Verstappen felt that he did well to correctly judge the conditions and strategy decisions, whilst maintaining focus within the cockpit.
F1 will now head to Miami from 6-8 May for the very first time and Verstappen is eager to continue to dent Leclerc’s title lead as he added: “We need to keep focused and we know that at the next race we need to be up there again and keep this going.”
Perez meanwhile made an excellent start to leapfrog Leclerc for second and managed to hold his position throughout amidst his first stop and separate “tough” periods of pressure from the Monegasque, which ended when Leclerc spun at Variante Alta on Lap 53.
The Mexican however felt that he suffered high tyre degradation towards the end of his first stint on intermediate tyres, as Leclerc reeled him in, so is relieved that he fended him off despite enduring an “intense” battle.
Following Red Bull’s “difficult start to this season with reliability issues in races, Perez added that this one-two finish is “really important” for the team morale heading to Miami.
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