Max Verstappen Wins Imola Sprint Race after Epic Battle with Charles Leclerc

Max Verstappen took a superb victory in the sprint race at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari on Saturday afternoon despite losing out at the start to Charles Leclerc.

Verstappen began the afternoon at the front of the field but appeared to struggle to get off the line, with Leclerc getting the jump on the Oracle Red Bull Racing driver to sweep into the lead.

The safety car was soon deployed as a collision between Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN‘s Zhou Guanyu other Scuderia AlphaTauri‘s Pierre Gasly left the Chinese driver in the wall and the Frenchman with a puncture.

Leclerc appeared to have the pace to stay at the front of the field for much of the race, but the Scuderia Ferrari driver seemed to struggle more with his soft tyres, which gave Verstappen the chance to come back at him.

Verstappen attacked lap after lap with the use of DRS down the start/finish straight, but it was only on the penultimate lap that the decisive move came, and he passed Leclerc around the outside heading into turn one. He then pulled away and made sure the Ferrari driver did not have DRS to attack him back on the final tour.

after qualifying seventh, Sergio Perez was able to make early gains and climbed all the way to third place to complete the podium, the Mexican ending not too far away from the back of Leclerc as the second Red Bull driver showed strong pace throughout the twenty-one laps.

Another driver to make excellent progress was Carlos Sainz Jr.the Spaniard recovering from his qualifying crash and his tenth-place position on the grid to move all the way up to fourth, the second Ferrari driver putting good moves on both McLaren F1 team drivers as well as the likes of Fernando Alonso other Kevin Magussen on the way.

Lando Norriswho missed most of final practice on Saturday morning due to a braking issue, could not hold on to his starting position of third, falling behind both Pérez and Sainz, but he was more than fast enough to hold onto fifth, finishing a few seconds clear of team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

Magnussen, the star of Qualifying on Friday, could not maintain the same kind of pace during the sprint, with his Hass F1 Team making the surprising decision to start him on the medium Pirelli compound of tyre, one of only three drivers in the field – along with his team-mate Mike Schumacher other Williams Racing‘s Nicholas Latifi – not to use the soft compound.

The struggle for performance saw Magnussen slide down the order, but he was able to hold onto the final point in eighth, with Valtteri Bottas – who missed final practice with a technical issue – securing seventh for Alfa Romeo after late passes on both the Dane and before that, Alonso.

Alonso struggled all race long and was unable to finish inside the points, the BWT Alpine F1 Team driver missing out by less than a second to Magnussen at the checkered flag, while Schumacher took his first top ten finish of his Formula 1 career, although with only the top eight scoring points, his wait for a first point in the sport goes on.

George Russell lost a place to Schumacher at the start and could not find a way back passed the German, although he was able to get ahead of the struggling Sebastian Vettel to finish eleventh. However, it was not the day the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team wanted as team mate Lewis Hamilton ended only fourteenth, behind AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda other Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team‘s Vettel.

Lance Stroll ended fifteenth in the second Aston Martin ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Oconwhile Gasly recovered from his puncture to pass both Williams drivers to end seventeenth. Alexander Albon ended ahead of Latifi in the battle of the Williams drivers at the back of the field.

Verstappen’s eight points means he moves up to fifth place in the Drivers’ Championship ahead of Hamilton, while Sainz has also moved up to second ahead of Russell thanks to his climb from tenth to fourth. Pérez is now only one point behind Russell in fourth, with Verstappen is three points further back.

The one good thing to come from the race was the ability of cars to be able to follow others closer, proving once more that the new aero regulations brought into Formula 1 in 2022 are working. And this will be good news for Leclerc, who will be looking for revenge on Verstappen in Sunday’s feature race.

Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari Sprint Race Result