After Verstappen built up a solid lead in the early stages following a good launch from pole position, the Red Bull star enjoyed a mostly serene drive around the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, until Norris’s McLaren began to close the gap from P2 as the race reached its latter stages.
A thrilling end to the event ensued as Norris continued to cut into Verstappen’s advantage, but a snap of oversteer seemed to take further life out of the McLaren driver’s ageing tyres, allowing the Red Bull to hold onto P1 by just 0.725s as the chequered flag was waved.
Despite looking to be on Norris’s tail in the fight for P2 earlier in the event, Charles Leclerc had to settle for the final podium position of third in front of Ferrari’s home fans, while Oscar Piastri claimed P4 in a solid drive for McLaren.
Carlos Sainz added to Ferrari’s points tally by claiming fifth place, ahead of Lewis Hamilton in a lonely sixth for Mercedes followed by his team mate George Russell in seventh, who had made a surprise late pit stop for medium tyres allowing him to claim the extra point for fastest lap.
Sergio Perez salvaged P8 for Red Bull after a difficult qualifying saw him start the race in P11, with Lance Stroll taking Aston Martin’s only points in ninth. Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the top-10 after a racy drive in the RB.
Fernando Alonso had spent much of the afternoon running near the rear of the pack in what has been a challenging weekend for the Spaniard. He retired his Aston Martin in the latter stages, classifying him in P19.
The only other retiree was Alex Albon, who was forced to retire his Williams earlier in the Grand Prix.
Key quote
“I think the whole race I had to push flat out to try and make a gap initially,” said Verstappen. “I think on the medium tyres we were quite strong, on the hards tyres it was just a bit more difficult to manage, especially in the last 10, 15 laps. I had no grip anymore, I was really sliding a lot.
“I saw Lando closing in, so the last 10 laps I was just flat out. It’s very difficult when the tyres are not working anymore and you have to go flat-out. I couldn’t afford to make too many mistakes. Luckily we didn’t, and super happy of course to win here today.”
Monaco is Next up on the Race Calandar.
