Max Verstappen silenced the tens of thousands of Italian fans on the Imola circuit with his dominant victory in the Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna.
The Red Bull driver outclassed Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who was unable to compete for the win for the first time this season. “This was a wonderful Sunday”, the Dutchman exulted over the on-board radio, after he had passed the finish flag in his Red Bull. “This was a well deserved win and a great result for the whole team.”
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Well deserved
Verstappen had a super weekend in Italy. He scored the maximum number of points with the win in the sprint race, the victory in the main race and the fastest lap. “It’s always difficult to get that maximum score, but everything went well all weekend and everything pointed to a good race. The start was important, but also assessing the weather conditions and the best time to change tires. We executed everything well and this one-two is well deserved,” said the reigning world champion, who saw his teammate Sergio Perez finish second.
Comparable
“We needed this for a while after two outages,” Verstappen told Viaplay. The Dutchman dropped out in Bahrain and Australia earlier this season. Both times there was a failure in the fuel supply to the engine.
In Imola, the Red Bull team had remedied that shortcoming and Verstappen turned out to have a solid and fast car again. “It was a bit similar to last year, when the track was also a bit wet and I had a really good start. When you’re in the lead, you set the pace, but don’t take too many risks and be good at watch the tires. I checked the race well.”
Championship
Verstappen also took advantage of Leclerc’s disappointing sixth place. In the championship, the Limburger shot from fifth to second place with 59 points. Leclerc still leads by 27 points, but Verstappen is definitely back in the title fight. “Last year it went up and down. One drop out and the positive feeling can be gone in no time. In this long season it is especially important to be consistent and not to take too many risks. The next race is in Miami at a new track, so I have no idea how we’re going to do there yet.”