Epic Verstappen flies to win at Imola ahead of answerless Norris and Piastri

Max Verstappen took over the lead of the race with a daring maneuver around the outside of polesitter Piastri, as George Russell overtook Lando Norris for P3 as well.

Further back Charles Leclerc started gaining places with the Monegasque moving up to P9 at Piratela pushing Gasly onto the gravel on corner exit.

On lap 11, after making gains on Russell, Norris was able to retake P3 from his fellow Briton.

Piastri was the first of the leaders to make a pitstop, with Leclerc cementing his determined drive by pulling the trigger early and netting P3 ahead of Norris, with Verstappen and the British McLaren driver still to make a pitstop.

Piastri had Yuki Tsunoda up the road. Red Bull instructed the Japanese driver to hold off the Australian, however coming out of the first Rivazza Tsunoda had a wide exit, which allowed Piastri to complete the overtake maneuver around the outside into Turn 2. The following laps, the championship leader picked off Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto, but in doing so he still ended up losing time to race leader Verstappen.

Leclerc couldn’t cut through traffic as easy as Piastri did with the Monegasque driver boxed in behind of Tsunoda. However, one lap later the Monegasque followed Piastri’s lead and started picking off Tsunoda and Bearman, whilst Hulkenberg was overtaken by Piastri, who then set off in pursuit of Hamilton who was yet to make a pitstop.

On lap 25 following Russell’s complaints regarding a potential mechanical issue in the rear of his car, Williams driver Carlos Sainz after having jumped Fernando Alonso at the pitstops started edging into the Mercedes’ driver’s advantage, prompting a reaction from Russell as he overtook Tsunoda to put a gap in between himself and his Spanish counterpart.

Further ahead, Piastri made his way past Hamilton and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, but was still losing ground on Verstappen.

On lap 29 McLaren called Norris into the pits, who would lose P2 to Piastri. As he pulled out of the pits, Esteban Ocon was instructed to pull his Haas VF-25 over to the side of the road after Tossa, prompting a Virtual Safety Car, which Red Bull Racing and Max Verstappen took advantage of make a pitstop.

Alexander Albon, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Lewis Hamilton and all the early pitters took the opportunity to make their first - or second pitstop depending on the case.

As the race went back to green Hamilton took P6 from Antonelli, Leclerc made his way back up to P8 after overtaking Hulkenberg, Lance Stroll and Alonso.

Russell then took over from Lance Stroll and Alonso, as Hamilton moved up to a net P5 getting past Isack Hadjar at Tamburello. A few laps later Leclerc got past Antonelli and moved into P7 with only the Racing Bulls’ French Algerian to separate him from teammate Hamilton.

On lap 40 Piastri took P3 from Albon and set off in pursuit of his teammate Norris 12 seconds and change up the road.

Antonelli parked his stricken W16 on the same part of the track as Ocon did with his Haas, but Race Direction opted for a Safety Car instead of a VSC. This triggered a flurry of pitstops which saw the order remained somewhat similar with Verstappen in the lead and Piastri moving ahead of Norris with the Briton pitting for fresh tyres.

On the restart, Verstappen edged away as Norris overtook Piastri for P2 and Leclerc defended fiercefully from Albon pushing him wide into the gravel at Tamburello, giving Hamilton the chance to take P5, which he capitalised on. The following lap, the Briton overtook Leclerc for P4.

Albon then resumed his attack on Leclerc