Max Verstappen wins in Imola after Lewis Hamilton mistake

Max Verstappen has won the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola in an action-packed race filled with rain, high-profile mistakes, high-speed crashes and red flags. Amongst all the chaos and commotion in the challenging slippery conditions, it was Max Verstappen who took the top spot of the podium with a near-flawless performance while Lewis Hamilton uncharacteristically spun off in the wet before recovering spectacularly to finish second. It was also a good day for Lando Norris who took the second
podium of his career to finish third behind the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in fourth and fifth.

The 7-time world champion Hamilton started on pole behind both Red Bulls but immediately lost the lead to Verstappen in the opening exchanges after a close coming together between the championship rivals at turn one. Things went from bad to worse for Hamilton on Lap 32 when he spun off at the Tosa corner while looking to overtake the lapped cars. Luckily, Hamilton was able to get the car out of the gravel and eventually performed a wonderful recovery drive to finish 2nd and take the bonus point for
the fastest lap which puts him one point ahead of Max Verstappen in the championship.

Nevertheless, it was a stunning performance from the Dutchman who finally delivered on his promise in Bahrain in round one and it looks like we have a championship battle on our hands at last with Red Bull able to compete with Mercedes at different circuits.

It was a race to forget for the German team and Valtteri Bottas in particular who started in 8th after a poor qualifying session on Saturday. The Finn struggled for pace for most of the race and his weekend went from bad to worse on Lap 32 when he was involved in a massive crash with the Williams of George Russell. It was a huge high-speed impact where Russell looked to overtake Valterri on the outside of turn one but ran out of room and put two wheels on the grass which caused him to spin out and crash into the Mercedes.

The crash left debris all over the track and brought out the red flag, much to the relief of Hamilton in the Mercedes who had spun out and damaged his front wing moments earlier. The stoppage allowed Mercedes to fix Lewis’s car without losing any time to Verstappen and the reigning champions was eventually able to plough through the field during the restart. He crucially passed Lando Norris three laps before the chequered flag before taking the fastest lap of the race which puts him slightly ahead of Verstappen in the championship after round two.