Verstappen wins, Hamilton recovers to second place

Verstappen and Hamilton collided on the first corners of the race. The latter then had to take a recovery trip after slipping into the gravel on the Tosa hairpin just before the red flag just before halfway, thanks to the serious accident with his Mercedes teammate.

Rain that fell on the first half of the Imola lap in the hour before the start of the race meant most of the cars with intermediate products left the grid.

From third on the grid, Verstappen was a perfect getaway to pull alongside Sergio Perez when the lights went out and was able to quickly pull next to pole sitter Hamilton – who almost ran onto the grass on his left – as they shot Tamburello Chicane.

Verstappen was ahead in the braking zone when Hamilton later braked to stay outside, and the pair walked side by side around the first left part of the sequence.

The Red Bull held the racing line and when Hamilton determinedly put his nose next to him, they collided at the second tip of the chicane, damaging the Mercedes’ left front panel and forcing Hamilton to rattle over the curbs.

Verstappen roared clearly at the head as the pack behind them continued to move cautiously around the opening tour, which ended with the deployment of the safety car after Nicholas Latifi was splashed into the wall and left Acque Minerali, where he had just jumped off, and drove across the street in front of Nikita Mazepins Haas.

The race was interrupted until the start of the seventh of 63 laps. This was a long time since Mick Schumacher lost the rear of his Haas, warmed his tires in the safety car queue and knocked off his front wing on the wall near the pit exit. That closed when the rubble was cleared away.

Verstappen managed to stay ahead of Hamilton as the Briton glanced outside on the way to Tamburello as he got back up to racing speed. Charles Leclerc, who had overtaken Perez for the third time and left the Alta variant seconds before Latifi’s crash, also followed just under third.

But a slide exiting Hamilton’s Acque Minerali gave Verstappen room to breathe and he had a lead of 3.3 seconds at the end of the first lap of the race.

Verstappen quickly set about extending his lead to the five-second mark, with Leclerc soon disappearing from Hamilton’s rear end but falling far behind Perez, who was given a 10-second extra for overtaking under the safety car as he did in Piratella and briefly slipped far Let Daniel Ricciardo and the wet, steamed Pierre Gasly get through.

Hamilton was able to keep Verstappen’s lead at around five seconds for the next phase of the race as they swapped out the fastest laps and considered when to get in and switch their spaces to slick tires.

Shortly after Verstappen had extended his lead to six seconds before half the distance, Hamilton was suddenly able to increase significantly and halve the gap in two laps before they reached the traffic in the back of the field.

After they had cleared the cars in front of them, Verstappen’s lead had dropped to two seconds and after a radio exchange with his team he was in the pits for slicks at the end of lap 27.

Hamilton also grabbed the funds at the end of the following lap, but the decision to stay out for a tour and slowly lift the right front off the Mercedes meant that Verstappen’s lead fell back to 5.5 seconds at the start of lap 31.

On this tour, which started with Verstappen, who lapped Bottas, ran in the second Mercedes towards the end of the top 10 and was at the head of another lapped traffic, Hamilton locked Russell in Tosa and slipped into the gravel.

He went far enough to damage his front wing against the outside wall when he tried to turn onto the escape route, forcing him to stop and back up slowly, and finally go the long way back onto the track.

Hamilton returned to the pits, pitting Leclerc in second and Norris in third after Perez fell behind the McLaren during his penalty pit stop to change his front wing, but was able to make his second stop under safety after Bottas and Russell -Car insert massive accident in Tamburello.

The Williams driver had approached the left tip of the chicane very quickly outside the Mercedes and had run very close to each other shortly before reaching the braking zone.

Russell appeared to be laying his right rear wheel in the grass, possibly in response to Bottas blinking to the right – the incident is due to be investigated after the race – and the Briton’s car shot to the left and the two were both in a heavy impact with the barriers eliminated on the inside and then outside of Tamburello, where they demonstrated to each other in the gravel after stalling.

The race was on the red flag for 25 minutes before resuming at the start of lap 35, but with a restart of the rolling safety car instead of a second start on the grid that was used in Monza and Mugello in 2020.

Verstappen dropped Leclerc as he reached the line, seconds after the Red Bull nearly turned the lead away, when he had to capture a big moment and cross the inside of the first Rivazza corner as the safety car in front of him peeled off.

The lack of tow behind Verstappen left Leclerc vulnerable to Norris, and the McLaren driver, who drove the Softs compared to the media on Ferrari and Red Bull, finished second at Tamburello.

Verstappen raced forward clearly and reached a lead of six seconds at the beginning of the 43rd lap. Norris tried to keep his softer tires alive to the finish before Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, promoted by Perez, slipped behind the lead. Ferrari ran through the Villeneuve chicane on lap 38 and dropped back to P14.

In the pack behind, Hamilton tried a recovery drive after winning back the lap he had lost with Tosa turned off and slowly returning to the pits thanks to the red flag.

He started again in ninth place and immediately took a place when Yuki Tsunoda drove off in front of the Mercedes at racing speed on the first lap in Tamburello and then picked up Lance Stroll and Ricciardo in quick succession as soon as he had lit his media and benefited from the DRS- Power in Tamburello.

It took Hamilton a while to get close to the Ferraris but eventually overtook Sainz to launch a tense final phase chase. Norris was trying to stop Leclerc when Hamilton appeared behind them.

When Leclerc fell back at the beginning of the 55th lap and DRS lost to Norris, Hamilton did not hesitate and took the third shot outside in front of the Tamburello braking zone and set off after the McLaren.

Norris held out another five laps, but in the end, Hamilton was able to make a nearly identical move with DRS at the start of lap 60 to recapture second place, which he had lost almost half the previous race.

Verstappen had already been on the road for 20 seconds and the two leaders exchanged the fastest laps in the last few tours, which ultimately went to Hamilton when Verstappen won with 22 seconds and Norris came home 1.7 seconds behind the Mercedes.

Leclerc and Sainz, who had multiple offs during the wet opening phase, finished fourth and fifth, ahead of Ricciardo and Stroll – the Aston Martin driver scored points after his car was quickly repaired on the opening lap after his brakes fired on the laps had caught the bars when the rain initially fell.

Gasly finished eighth after being a rolling roadblock early on. Kimi Raikkonen finished ninth, but after the race was faced with an investigation into a possible violation of the restart of the roll start.

Esteban Ocon took the last point in tenth place in front of his alpine teammate Fernando Alonso, who slipped his front wing in the laps before the start before the start in Tosa and later had a spin after the Bottas / Russell shunt.

Perez finished 12th ahead of Tsunoda, while Sebastian Vettel retired due to a suspected transmission problem.