The cars and drivers were racing again for the second time in the weekend at Imola. This time it was for the big points in the feature race of the sprint weekend at the FORMULA 1 ROLEX GRAN PREMIO DEL MADE IN ITALY E DELL’EMILIA-ROMAGNA 2022. It was Max Verstappen who took the race victory, earning some solid points over rival Charles Leclerc, who suffered a late race crash.
The race started in damp conditions from rain before the start of the race, prompting all drivers to start the race on the green intermediate tyres. Forecasts predicted rain 30 minutes after the start of the race, although that rain would never materialize.
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez got away well in the lead, while both Ferrari drivers struggled for grip as they pulled away from the grid. That allowed both Red Bulls to go 1-2. Charles Leclerc was also overtaken by Lando Norris on the inside of the second corner.
Carlos Sainz was overtaken by Daniel Ricciardo in the long first corner. Sainz tried to fight back around the outside of the second corner. He was narrowly ahead through the corner, but Ricciardo touched the damp kerbs. His car was unsettled and he had to correct some oversteer, sending his car slightly wide. He tapped the rear of Sainz’s car, spinning the Ferrari into the gravel.
The safety car was deployed to clear the beached Ferrari of Sainz. Ricciardo also went into the gravel, but he was able to crawl to the grass between the gravel and the wall, resuming the race.
Fernando Alonso was damaged on the first lap as well. Mick Schumacher lost the rear of his Haas on the exit of turn 3. The rear tyre of the Haas slammed into the sidepod of the Alpine, cracking the bodywork. Neither had to pit for repairs.
When the race restarted on lap 5, Perez closed right up on the back of Verstappen before the restart. Norris was back a little too far from the rear of the Red Bulls, giving Verstappen and Perez a chance to pull away at the front of the field.
The following lap, Alonso lost his right-side sidepod. It gave way to damage, shedding some debris down the straight when Lewis Hamilton was alongside. Alpine pitted him to retire.
After battling for a few laps, Leclerc was able to overtake Norris. Without assistance from the DRS, due to the track’s damp conditions, Leclerc spent a few more laps stuck behind the McLaren than he would have liked. This put him on the backfoot for his battle with the leading Red Bulls.
On lap 12, George Russell was battling with Kevin Magnussen. He tried to overtake the Haas by braking late around the outside of turn 2. He got ahead, but braked a little too late. He jumped across the kerbs and Magnussen was able to take back the position. It was short-lived, as Russell was able to make a clean overtake at the Variente Alta chicane.
While two were battling, this allowed Valtteri Bottas to catch up to the fight. With Russell now ahead, this left Magnussen under pressure from the Alfa Romeo behind. Bottas had a strong exit out of the Variente Alta the following lap. This put the duo wheel-to-wheel in the braking zone for Rivazze. Bottas managed to get ahead.
Daniel Ricciardo was the first driver to pit for slick tyres on lap 17. There was nothing to lose, as he was already running at the back of the field. This triggered the rest of the field to pit over the next two laps for slick tyres.
Esteban Ocon and Lewis Hamilton nearly collided in the pit lane when Ocon was released alongside Hamilton. The close call caught the attention of the stewards, who gave the Alpine driver a five-second time penalty.
Despite having a slightly slow pit stop, Leclerc rejoined the race narrowly ahead of Perez. But with warmer tyres, Perez was able to make quick work of the Ferrari, going back into P2.
Leclerc lost a lot of ground to Perez, but on lap 29 Perez out-braked himself into the Variente Alta chicane, being forced to cut across the grass. This put Leclerc right on the back of the Red Bull, although he was not able to mount an attack and eventually dropped back again.
On lap 34, the DRS was finally enabled. Despite having DRS, the race was relatively orderly in the middle stages of the race.
With 13 laps of the race remaining, Charles Leclerc pitted for soft compound tyres, trying to take the fastest lap from Verstappen. Red Bull responded the following lap, pitting Perez for the same tyres and then Verstappen the lap after that.
Leclerc briefly had the fastest lap of the race, but pushing hard proved to be costly. He attacked the inside kerbs at the entrance of the Variante Alta chicane too much, hopping over the yellow sausage kerb. His Ferrari was sent spinning into the barriers. He was fortunate enough to not suffer any major damage from the barrier, although he did have to pit for a new front wing. He rejoined the race down in P9 behind Kevin Magnussen, promoting Norris to the podium.
But it was Verstappen who took the top step of the podium by quite a margin to his teammate Perez. A fastest lap for the Dutchman earned him another point, helping to lift him to second place in the World Drivers’ Championship standings, just 27 points behind Leclerc. Leclerc was able to recover some points, making it up to P6 by the end of the race.
Next, the teams and drivers will be heading to the sunny beaches of Miami in the United States for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix. That race will be held on the weekend of May 8.
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| Race Results | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | M. Verstappen | 26 | |
| 2 | S. Perez | 18 | |
| 3 | L. Norris | 15 | |
| 4 | G. Russell | 12 | |
| 5 | V. Bottas | 10 | |
| 6 | C. Leclerc | 8 | |
| 7 | Y. Tsunoda | 6 | |
| 8 | S. Vettel | 4 | |
| 9 | K. Magnussen | 2 | |
| 10 | L. Stroll | 1 | |
| 11 | A. Albon | ||
| 12 | P. Gasly | ||
| 13 | L. Hamilton | ||
| 14 | E. Ocon | ||
| 15 | G. Zhou | ||
| 16 | N. Latifi | ||
| 17 | M. Schumacher | ||
| 18 | D. Ricciardo | ||
| DNF | F. Alonso | ||
| DNF | C. Sainz | ||
