Yahoo Autos Max Verstappen Sails to Imola Win in the Rain
Max Verstappen has started the 2022 season with an unsustainable pattern. He had only won or retired out of race sessions coming into today's race at Imola in wet conditions, although both retirements came from engine issues on days Ferrari's Charles Leclerc seemingly would have won anyway. That pattern continued today, a race where the surprise was not the result but the margin.
Verstappen, who took pole in qualifying on Friday and held it by passing Leclerc in the closing laps of yesterday's sprint race, had a relatively easy race today. He got out to an early lead, resigning Leclerc to race his teammate Sergio Perez throughout the day. Perez matched Leclerc at every opportunity as the track dried, allowing Red Bull to sail to a relatively smooth 1-2 finish. For the first time this season, Ferrari faced a sense of urgency. That's when the cracks started to show.
For the second week in a row, Carlos Sainz Jr. did not make it out of the first corner. He collided with Daniel Ricciardo this time, leaving Ricciardo to run around the back of the field and Sainz to retire. Leclerc stayed within reach of Perez until throwing on softs to take a shot at the extra point for fastest lap over the final ten laps, a decision Red Bull immediately followed defensively with so many laps left. A few corners later, Leclerc lost control.
He avoided the wall, but the damage was done. A perfect recovery drive only got the championship leader up to sixth, opening up a spot on the podium for Lando Norris. It was the break Verstappen badly needed, turning what was once just a 12-point gain to a 19-point swing in one weekend. Leclerc's dominant lead is back down to 26, the total number of points a winner with the fastest lap of the day puts on a non-scorer that weekend.
While the day was a disappointment for Leclerc, it was a disaster for seven-time series champion Lewis Hamilton. The Mercedes star, completely unable to escape traffic in the back of the field, finished outside of the points with a healthy car. He is now some 58 points out of the championship picture.
Mercedes is currently a mid-pack team, though. Even another excellent finish from George Russell, a fourth, required Russell to win a race-long duel with former Mercedes second driver Valtteri Bottas in an Alfa Romeo. While McLaren's season has gone from disastrous to respectable at more complimentary tracks, Mercedes seems to have a car that does not quite work anywhere. The team badly needs major upgrades in the next month if either of its drivers are going to compete for anything this season.
Yuki Tsunoda, Sebastian Vettel, Kevin Magnussen, and Lance Stroll rounded out the top ten. While the double points finish for Aston Martin mark their first points-scoring finishes of the season, Magnussen has now finished in the points in three of his first four races since returning to Haas.
In two weeks, F1 returns for the first-ever Miami GP. That will be the first of two races in the U.S., and four in North America, this season.
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