Max Verstappen survived a late scare to win 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Verstappen dominated from lights-to-flag – except when he relinquished the lead between laps 23-28 – to finish ahead of Lando Norris following a late duel, and Charles Leclerc who finished third.
Oscar Piastri jumped Carlos Sainz in the pit stop phase to finish fourth and fifth respectively ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Sergio Perez recovered from his Q2 exit to finish eighth at the checkered flag ahead of Lance Stroll and Yuki Tsunoda.
In the drivers’ standings, Verstappen extended his title lead to 48 points as Leclerc displaced Perez to third whilst Norris and Sainz rounded out the top five.
(Image credit: Clive Rose/Getty Images)
At lights out, Verstappen made a slow start but fought off Norris to retain his lead as the top six held position but Tsunoda lost two positions to Hamilton and Hulkenberg in a largely quiet start aside from Fernando Alonso who started from the pits after set-up changes.
Imola however is a difficult track to overtake on which proved the case with little overtaking in the opening phase, as Norris on Lap 23 was the first frontrunner to pit followed by Piastri, Verstappen and Leclerc in the following four laps.
Sainz meanwhile stayed out until Lap 28 hoping to make an overcut on Leclerc but came off worse as he re-joined behind Piastri, whilst Verstappen, Norris and Leclerc held order up front.
Perez had opted to run the alternate strategy and started on the hard tyres until he pitted at the end of Lap 37 which saw him slip from eighth to 11th but he quickly cleared Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg before he cleared Tsunoda on Lap 42 for eighth.
Norris meanwhile struggled for pace on his hard tyre and a four-second advantage over Leclerc had been whittled down to around one second by Lap 41, yet Leclerc struggled to get close enough to produce an overtake and got wide across Variante Alta on Lap 47 to lose more time.
Stroll like Perez ran long albeit on the medium tyres unlike the Mexican which paid dividends once he got on the hard tyres as he recovered to ninth by the end of Lap 50 as he cleared Tsunoda on that lap into Tamburello.
Up front, Verstappen soon began to report set-up issues in regard to turning through corners which allowed Norris to rapidly reel in the three-time champion. as the Brit chased his second win just a fortnight after he took his maiden victory in Miami.
Verstappen ultimately clung on to take victory from Norris as Leclerc settled for third ahead of Piastri and Sainz.
Mercedes pitted Russell on Lap 53 for medium tyres which meant that Hamilton finished sixth ahead of his teammate, as Perez, Stroll and Tsunoda rounded out the top ten,
F1 now heads to Monaco from 24-26 May for the showpiece race of the calendar around the streets of the Principality.
| Position | Driver | Team | Laps | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 63 | 1h 25m 25.252 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 63 | + 0.725 |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 63 | + 7.916 |
| 4 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 63 | + 14.132 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 63 | + 22.325 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 63 | + 35.104 |
| 7 | George Russell | Mercedes | 63 | + 47.154 |
| 8 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | 63 | + 54.776 |
| 9 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 63 | + 79.556 |
| 10 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | 63 | + 1 Lap |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 63 | + 1 Lap |
| 12 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB | 63 | + 1 Lap |
| 13 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 63 | + 1 Lap |
| 14 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 63 | + 1 Lap |
| 15 | Guanyu Zhou | Kick Sauber | 63 | + 1 Lap |
| 16 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 63 | + 1 Lap |
| 17 | Valtteri Bottas | Kick Sauber | 63 | + 1 Lap |
| 18 | Logan Sargeant | Williams | 63 | + 1 Lap |
| 19 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 63 | + 1 Lap |
| RET | Alex Albon | Williams | 52 | Tyre |
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