That, then is us. Thanks all for your company, and we’ll see you for Miami the week after next. Peace out.
Aha! Giles Richards’ report is here!
Leclerc says he got too greedy when P3 was the best he could do, lamenting the loss of seven points. He can see Red Bull are more competitive than they were and expects it to be close for the rest of the season, which is why his mistake was so significant - though he’s actually relieved the penalty for it wasn’t even worse.
Sainz Jr is as unhappy as you’d expect after crashing out in the first lap for the second race in a row. He’s pretty sanguine in interview, though, saying it happens in the life of a sportsman and is happy the good times will soon come.
“We are not good enough for a world champion,” says Toto Wolff, saying that he has apologised to Hamilton. understanding of the car is improving, and he hopes for a better race in Miami.
“Losing is more interesting than winning,” says Mark Woldin. “This humiliation will reveal Hamiltons character.”
I think we’ve learnt plenty about that over the years, but yes, it’ll be interesting to see how he handles such misery.
“This was a terrible race.”
“No worries Toto.”
Long pause.
“Just keep working hard.”
You could cut the atmosphere with an atmosphere cutter, but we can’t ignore Russell taking P4 with the same car.
Elsewhere, there’s a bit going on...
That looks ominous doesn’t it? Leclerc’s lead remains a healthy one, but Red Bull and Verstappen are on the charge. If you’re fighting for a championship against Max Verstappen you can’t spin out like that when you’re driving on your own,” says Rosberg. He’s not wrong.
Driver standings
1 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) 86
2 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) 59
3 Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) 54
4 George Russell (Mercedes) 49
5 Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari) 38
6 Lando Norris (McLaren) 35
7 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 28
8 Valterri Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 24
I should note, Hamilton finished 13th despite crossing the line 14th, as Ocon’s five-second penalty took effect. I’m sure that will greatly improve his current mood.
Verstappen and Perez come out together – ahhhhh – then ascend to their podium spots and enjoy the Dutch and Austrian anthems.
Updated
Final placings
1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Sergio Pérez (Red Bull)
3 Lando Norris (McLaren)
4 George Russell (Mercedes)
5 Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
6 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
7 Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
8 Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
9 Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
10 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
11 Alexander Albon (Williams)
12 Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
13 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
14 Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
15 Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
16 Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
17 Mick Schumacher (Haas)
18 Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
DNF Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
DNF Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari)
Norris is surprised to get top three, and beating one Red Bull and one Ferrari is better than expected. He didn’t think the car would go as well as it did, praising the hard work of his team - and himself – and says he likes these conditions.
Perez says he had an intense fight with Leclerc and it was was all under control, then Ferrari started chasing with the stop, but the thing today was not to make mistakes and his team didn’t. He thinks he’ll be close to some wins this year – that’s the target – but he’s very happy for Max.
Verstappen says it’s always tough to get pole and win the race, but he thought yesterday it looked like a strong weekend. You can never be sure with the weather and he knew the start would be important. But as a leader you’ve got to dictate the pace, and everything was well-managed.
“Who’d have thought,” whoops Lando Norris. He’s growing into a very serious driver.
Strewth, Lewis Hamilton is still out there.
“That was a very lonely Sunday,” crows Verstappen. “An amazing result, thanks guys”. But really, this win was all about his drive in qualifying. He is good.
Max Verstappen wins the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix by a street!
His teammate, Sergio Perez, is second, and Lando Norris takes third for McLaren. Ferrari, meantime, lament a miserable weekend.
Updated
Lap 63/63 Verstappen is absolutely cruising, while Russell looks set to hold onto his fourth place.
Lap 62/63 Russell holds off Bottas again and looks good for his fourth place, while Leclerc takes out Tsunoda to go sixth. He’ll be spewing with himself, as I said earlier, but has come back well and limited the damage somewhat.
Lap 61/63 We’ve barely spoken of Verstappen since the stat, which tells us what a straightforward endeavour this race has been. It’s hard to look beyond him for the driver championship, however wide Leclerc’s current lead.
Lap 60/63 Russell is finding a good line, holding off Bottas – who must be cursing that botched pit. Had that gone well, he’d be very close to Norris, who’s looking good for his second consecutive podium at Imola.
Lap 59/63 Leclerc passes Vettel and should have enough gas to get by Tsunoda and into sixth.
Lap 58/63 Bottas halves Russell’s lead, but Russell has driven really well today; meantime, Leclerc has Vettel in his sights. And as I type that, Bottas has a dig going into Tamburello; Russell holds him off.
Lap 57/63 Bottas, fifth, is catching Russell, sixth – the gap is 1.082s, and there’s time.
1 Verstappen
2 Perez
3 Norris
4 Russell
5 Bottas
6 Tsunoda
7 Vettel
8 Leclerc
9 Magnussen
10 Stroll
11 Ocon
12 Albon
1§3 Gasly
14 Hamilton
Lap 56/63 Leclerc is lucky he could get going again, and he quickly passes Magnussen. Vettel is 4.6s or so ahead.
Lap 55/63 Norris will be absolutely delighted, while Leclerc will be fuming with himself. He went wide to try and get close enough to get DRS at the next corner, only to drive over a fat kerb after misjudging the bend and braking too late. He’s ninth now, so will be aiming for seventh as the best he can do, I reckon.
Updated
Lap 54/63 WHAT! On Perez’s tail, Leclerc loses control and drives into the barrier!
He’s not able to turn left, he comes in, and Norris assumes the podium! What a dreadful day for Ferrari in their home GP!
Updated
Lap 53/63 Perez isn’t finding the grip Leclerc is getting, and with DRS also available, Ferrari have a decent chance of nicking P2.
Lap 52/63 Verstappen won’t want to lose his fastest lap point while, behind him, Leclerc has reduced the gap between him and Perez to 0.711s.
Lap 51/63 Perez stops too, and presumably Verstappen will do likewise. Leclerc, softed up to the eyeballs, easily passes Norris, and yup, in comes Verstappen.
Lap 50/63 Leclerc pits and takes softs – he’ll presumably be gambling on his ability to set a fastest lap, because he’s ceded a spot to Norris and is now sitting fourth.
Lap 49/63 Hamilton’s inability to get out of 14th place is a staggering indictment of his vehicle. I’ll happily borrow him my Volvo, if that’s any help.
Lap 48/63 Verstappen stretches away as my Safari crashes. Chrome, though, is back, so I’m having a better afternoon than Lewis Hamilton.
Lap 47/63 Leclerc tells his team he’s struggling – what an afternoon this is for Red Bull. Verstappen sets another fastest lap, to lead by 12.805s and Tsunoda, having a great drive, takes out Magnussen.
Lap 46/63 Hamilton has a hack at Gasly, who shuts the door. But suddenly, things are looking murky – might we get a livening downpour?
1 Verstappen
2 Perez
3 Leclerc
4 Norris
5 Russell
6 Bottas
7 Vettel
8 Magnussen
Lap 45/63 Hamilton is within roughly 0.2s of Gasly as we notice some debris on the track. A safety car is the only way someone might catch Verstappen, but looks unlikely.
Lap 44/63 My Chrome not only crashes but refuses to return. Nothing much happens, though.
Lap 43/63 Verstappen won’t have enjoyed many races as easy as this. He’ll be delighted wit the start he made, but really he won this yesterday in qualifying.
Lap 42/63 Watching Hamilton like this is something. I guess it’s not dissimilar to watching Manchester United, both pursuits not without their humour.
Updated
Lap 41/63 We’re with Hamilton as he tries to get close to Gasly ... who bousts away.
Lap 40/63 In sixth, Bottas is half a second quicker on his last lap than Russell in eighth and the gap between them is roughly 1.5s – he’s plenty of time to move up a place. Russell, though, is a tenacious rude word, and will be planning to hang on.
Lap 39/63 “I think he might have a little smile in his helmet,” says Nico Rosberg as Verstappen prepares to lap Hamilton. He leads Perez, who’s struggling with back markers, by 12.178s.
Lap 38/63 Verstappen will soon be lapping Hamilton – you’ve got to laugh are words I doubt anyone at Mercedes will be uttering. But those of us with no skin in the game can enjoy the ability of sport to inflict untold misery, and make no mistake: this is that.
Lap 37/63 Hamilton’s inability to pass even Gasly will be depressing him greatly – maybe he should take a gap yah whole his team figure things out. Verstappen leads by 12.684s, while Leclerc trails Perez by 1.749s.
Lap 36/63 Verstappen is taking this off the set. He leads by 11.006s.
1 Verstappen
2 Perez
3 Leclerc
4 Norris
5 Russell
6 Bottas
7 Vettel
8 Magnussen
9 Tsunoda
10 Stroll
11 Ocon
12 Albon
13 Gasly
14 Hamilton
15 Latifi
16 Zhou
17 Schumacher
18 Ricciardo
Lap 35/63 Amen selah! DRS is with us, so Perez only needs to make up 10s on Veerstappen to get the benefit. Behind him, his lead over Leclerc is now 2.238s.
Lap 34/63 Another fastest lap for Verstappen, whose lead is up to 10.857s. It’ll take something significant for him to botch this while, behind him, Hamilton, 14th, gets closer to Gasly, 13th. What a sentence that is to type.
Lap 33/63 And here’s Horner now, telling Sky the deployment of DRS is up to the race organiser. That’s awfully magnanimous of him – I recall him taking a more eager interest in such matters when his drivers weren’t out in front. In Abu Dhabi, for example.
Lap 32/63 Verstappen is overtaking back markers now, and is on target to do likewise to Hamilton. I daresay Christian Horner will allow himself a chortle should that happen.
Lap 31/63 It’s quite sedate now, the top places pretty set. Eleventh to 14th is close, but that’s about it.
Lap 30/63 Perez now needs Leclerc by 1.292s, and the chances of him taking second are receding. He needs something to go wrong with the second Red Bull.
Lap 29/63 Schumacher is flagged for driving over the kerb – one more and he gets a penalty. We then see Perez driving over the edge of the track and understand why he now trails Verstappen by 9.566s.
Updated
Lap 28/63 Verstappen sets a fastest lap and now leads by 8.135s – it turns out Perez went over the kerb, and Leclerc is close to him! But on the straight, the Red Bull has more than the Ferrari and Perez eases away.
Lap 27/63 Tsunoda passes Stroll to go ninth as we wonder, yet again, why with all the drivers on slicks and a dry racing line available, the race organisers have switched off DRS.
Updated
Lap 26/63 Rain is moving away from the circuit, drivers are told, and though Verstappen is more than capable of dominating in a downpour, the less happens, the more likely he is to win. His lead, though, has been cut to 6.705s - Perez is absolutely flying at the moment.
Updated
Lap 25/63 Hamilton lost a bit of time pitting, but how well Russell’s doing in P5 will not be lost on him. His teammate’s start was the difference, and though he doesn’t have the gas to attack Norris, he’s doing well enough keeping ahead of Bottas.
Lap 24/63 Perez sets a fastest lap, exactly what he needs. He’s extended his lead over Leclerc to over a second, but Verstappen is still 7.423 in front of him.
Updated
Lap 23/63 Ocon is given a five-second penalty for unsafe release while Leclerc gets to within 0.2s of Perez before deciding he can’t have a hack at him because he’s on a wet patch. If they turn on DRS, though he’ll pass him very quickly.
Lap 22/63 Hamilton is now 14th, behind Gasly, Albon and Ocon. Eeesh! Verstappen leads by 7.474s while, behind him, Leclerc is within 0.863s of Perez.
Updated
Lap 21/63 Verstappen still leads when he comes out, Perez, whose tyres are warm, nips ahead of Leclerc, then we see Hamilton and Ocon bumping in the pit lane. Ocon came out, taking the track Hamilton fancied for himself, help position, and here we are!
1 Verstappen
2 Perez
3 Leclerc
4 Norris
5 Russell
6 Bottas
7 Vettel
8 Magnussen
9 Tsunoda
10 Stroll
Updated
Lap 20/63 Suddenly the pit lane is very busy, Bottas in – and he’s got a problem on the front of his car! That’s a disastrous stop, Hamilton pits, Ocon gets out ahead having gained in the pit lane, Gasly undercuts him, and that’s two places lost for Mercedes! Now Verstappen, Leclerc and Norris pit, and that’s worked very nicely for the leader.
Lap 19/63 Gasly and Albon come in and it looks like there’ll be widespread changing to slicks. Thing is, though the rain looks less likely than before, those at the front have a lot more to lose, so perhaps Red Bull will try changing Perez, see how it goes, then take a view on Verstappen ... and that’s exactly what they do! Here we go!
Lap 18/63 “We need some DRS in this race,” says David Croft, to give overtaking a chance, while Ricciardo, last, pits. That’ll be helpful to the rest of the field, who’re keen to know how slicks go.
Lap 17/63 Hamilton is closing on Stroll and both are closing on Tsunoda while, in comms, they reckon the track is dry enough for DRS. Verstappen won’t care much either way, his lead now up to 6.667s.
Lap 16/63 Leclerc is told by his team to focus on corner exits, complaining that every time he does, he loses time. But he’s taking chunks out of Perez so must be doing something right.
Lap 15/63 There’s barely anything to say about Verstappen, which tells you he’s having a very nice afternoon sojourn. He’s just set the fastest lap and leads by 6.231s while, behind him, Leclerc has closed to within 1.316s of Perez.
Lap 14/63 It’s all going wrong for Magnussen, who’s passed by Bottas, while Hamilton, in 11th – ! – attacks Stroll. I daresay such sentences will feel strange to read and write for some time yet.
Lap 13/63 Leclerc is getting nearer to Perez, while Verstappen maintains his lead of nearly six seconds.
Lap 12/63 Russell get side-by-side with Magnussen and it’s third time lucky! He passes on the outside ... then makes a mess of the chicane and is passed himself!
1 Verstappen
2 Perez
3 Leclerc
4 Norris
And excuse me while I interrupt myself! Russell nips past Magnussen again, who’s immediately threatened by Bottas, in seventh!
5 Russell
6 Magnussen
7 Bottas
8 Vettel
Updated
Lap 11/63 Magnussen makes Russell take the long way around and right when a passing looks likely, the Mercedes driver runs out of track. Back at the front, Leclerc is matching the Red Bulls for pace, but he’s nearly 7.5s behind Verstappen and 2.597s behind Perez.
Lap 10/63 The track is still wet enough, deem the authorities, for them to disable DRS, and as the director cuts to a wide, we see it looks pretty murky out there. Meanwhile, Russell gets close to Magnussen, 0.3s behind, but he’s yet to find a passing lane.
Lap 9/63 We get a proper butcher’s at Alonso’s car and see it was damaged in a bump with Schumacher. He is, though, back in the race, while Russell complains to his team that his tyres are degrading quickly. He’s advised to find the wet parts of the track, and the problem all the drivers have is that they can’t change to slicks because more rain is anticipated.
Lap 8/63 Leclerc gets behind Norris at the reach the chicane and he’s through! He badly needed that because the gap to the front is a significant one – he’s 6.080s behind Versatappen – but his car has pace.
Lap 7/63 Goodness me, Verstappen is on one here, the lead up to 2.961s. If his car doesn’t fail him, this isn’t going to be close, which is more than can be said of Alonso. He’s in the pits, and will do well to get out of them.
Lap 6/63 Verstappen is pulling away, his lead up to 1.704s, while Magnussen is putting distance between him and Russell. Alonso, meanwhile, is in trouble – he’s passed by Hamilton and we see that the side of his car is jiggered. There’s a hole in it!
Updated
Lap 5/63 We have a green flag and Verstappen stamps onto the gas to open up a lead while, behind, Leclerc is already right up behind Norris and Vettel passes Alonso.
Lap 4/63 Looking yet again at the start – there was a lot going on – Norris got so close to Leclerc. That is terrific driving, and we’ll be seeing the safety car depart at the end of this lap.
Lap 4/63 You’ll have noted that Ricciardo is now last – he’s gone into the pits, perhaps because of a clash-related situation. Red Bull will be absolutely loving this, not only in front but with Norris protecting them from Leclerc’s Ferrari. I think we’ll be rid of the safety car shortly.
Lap 3/63 Looking yet again at the collision, it looks to me like Sainz cut in front of Ricciardo, drifting in front of him, and that’ll be a racing incident.
1 Verstappen
2 Perez
3 Norris
4 Leclerc
5 Magnussen
6 Russell
7 Bottas
8 Alonso
9 Vettel
10 Tsunoda
11 Stroll
12 Hamilton
13 Ocon
14 Gasly
15 Albon
16 Latifi
17 Schumacher
18 Zhou
19 Ricciardo
Lap 2/63 The safety car is out and looking again at the Ricciardo/Sainz clash we see that Schumacher also went off the track, losing several places. Visibility in traffic isn’t good at all.
Updated
Lap 1/63 Unlike yesterday, Verstappen gets away well but Leclerc does not, passed by Perez, then for the second race in a row, Sainz is off the track following the first corner and a clash with Ricciardo! He can hope for a safety car, I guess, but otherwise Norris is also past Leclerc into fourth and Russell is up to sixth! Phew!
Updated
Here we go!
The formation lap is under way, generating a fair amount of shpritz, but the chicane is nicely dry. Pierre Gasly is told that there’ll be more rain in 20-25 minutes, and most cars will likely switch to slicks prior to then.
The track is definitely drying out, but as we said earlier, that might change and quickly. Verstappen will know that if he can retain his lead coming out of the first turn, he’ll be very hard to stop.
Elsewhere:
Goodness me, we’ve got a lot of sport for you today, here at your super soaraway Guardian.
Verstappen enjoys a chortle with his team – he’ll be on a colossal buzz after yesterday, and it’s very hard to look past him if his car works nicely. But as ever in F1, if is a very big word.
We zoom in on Ferrari’s little red leather document wallets, then visit with Toto Wolff who admits “We’re lacking in many areas”. He thinks that in theory they’re not competitive, but when the motor race starts, things can change quickly and, in similar vein, he’s not given up on winning the big pots this season.
Here comes the Italian national anthem. Absolute tune!
Seven times Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton has dismissed as “a bunch of nonsense” speculation about his future and said he remains fully committed to Mercedes despite receding title hopes.
The 37-year-old Briton was 50 points adrift of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc after Saturday’s Emilia Romagna sprint race, with that gulf set to widen further after only four of the season’s 23 races.
Mercedes are struggling with a “porpoising” car that bounces on the straights as aerodynamic downforce is gained and lost, and Hamilton qualified only 14th for Sunday’s main race at Imola.
Asked whether he would see out his contract, which runs to the end of next year, Hamilton said such comments were silly.
“I am 100% committed to this team. There’s nowhere else that I want to be. Just because we’ve hit a rough patch, it*s just not in my DNA to back out,” he told reporters.“We are still world champions and we can fix this. It’s just going to take longer, it’s going to take a painful year.
“I think, ultimately, this is going to be a painful year that we*re going to have to ride out together with belief that we can rectify it at some point, maybe through the year or even the worst case scenario, at least for next year.”
Hamilton said his current Mercedes was one of the worst he had driven in Formula One.
“There are people that watch and say that I’ve never had a bad car. And I can assure you I have. The 2009 (McLaren) car was very, very far off, and was the worst car that I’ve had,” he said.
“This car currently is not far off that experience, but I think has a lot of potential, as did that car. We fixed it eventually and got back in the fight, or in the game. And I have the utmost faith that my team can do that here, too.”
Hamilton, who won his first title with McLaren in 2008, failed to reach the podium in the opening nine races of 2009 before winning in Hungary.
Then, as now, Formula One underwent a rules revolution and Brawn GP stunned the field with a radical interpretation.“It was a brand new era of car and I remember coming back in February, or January, to the team, and the head aerodynamicists and team guys at the top were like ‘Oh, we’ve already hit our target,” said Hamilton.
“The new rules said we would have 50% less downforce in 2009, so they designed the car to have 50% less... Then obviously we got to the first test and realised that others had almost as much downforce as the previous year.”Hamilton said the current situation was different with Mercedes wrong-footed by what the wind tunnel was telling them and the reality of the car bouncing on track.
“This experience is a lot harder to fix than we could have ever imagined,” he said.
Christian Horner thinks the track will dry out pretty quickly, but is also expecting “another band of rain”. He’s hoping Verstappen gets a better start today than yesterday and, let’s be real, we can probably expect that from him.
Kevin Magnussen doesn’t mind the rain, but he had a good day in the wet on Friday. He seems to fancy the job.
Hamilton’s car is fine, says Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside engineer, and he thinks overtaking will be easier early on.
Inters is the call, reckons David Croft on Sky, while George Russell thinks there’ll be a transition to slicks at some point. He’s not been experiencing the power problems that, we learn, have been afflicting Hamilton.
With conditions so changeable, drivers and teams won’t know quite how to play things, forced to change tactics on the hoof. All of which might help Lewis Hamilton, who’ll be hoping the wetness levels the mechanical playing field, allowing skill to take over. I’m certain he’ll be attacking the deficit with his usual intensity.
Public service announcement:
Today in 1978, the world was introduced to the Blues Brothers … pic.twitter.com/fzh2XScujC
— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) April 23, 2022
I daresay the Bluesmobile would’ve had a decent shot at winning here, and definitely a better one than Mercedes. Badabing!
The weather, though, is clearing, so there’s still a choice to be made between wets and inters.
It’s been raining, which once upon a time meant one thing: Michael Schumacher wins. There’s no one quite like that these days, but Verstappen, who leaves the garage on full wets, will not mind the conditions at all.
The starting grid
1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
3 Sergio Pérez (Red Bull)
4 Carlos Sainz Jr (Ferrari)
5 Lando Norris (McLaren)
6 Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
7 Valtteri Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
8 Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
9 Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
10 Mick Schumacher (Haas)
11 George Russell (Mercedes)
12 Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
13 Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
14 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
15 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
16 Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
17 Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
18 Alexander Albon (Williams)
19 Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
20 Zhou Guanyu (Alfa Romeo)
Updated
Preamble
If we didn’t know, now we know: Lewis Hamilton, poised to become the, er, most winningest driver of all-time as last season entered its final seconds, will not be bothering Michael Schumacher this term – and we’re not even four races in. That has got to sting – and one day, we might be talking of Michael Masi’s intervention as one of sport’s great sliding-doors moments – but in the meantime, the rest of us can get down to another thrilling chase for the title.
Though Charles Leclerc’s 40-point lead at the top of the driver championship is a healthy one, the devastating manner in which Max Verstappen nailed him in yesterday’s qualifying jaunt was ominous in the extreme. The Ferrari man could’ve been forgiven for hearing John Williams’ famous Jaws score as he was reeled in then passed, and no one will be surprised if it turns out to be the key moment in this year’s tussle.
However, no one will be surprised if actually, it represents nothing more than itself and is then followed by numerous other switches in momentum, embarrassing losses of composure and general rancour. Let’s hope so!
Lights out: 3pm local, 2pm BST
