Max Verstappen upset Ferrari’s Imola faithful with a daring overtake past Charles Leclerc to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sprint race.
A slow getaway off the line meant the pole-sitter lost his lead going into the first turn, with McLaren’s Lando Norris also taking a look at the Red Bull as Verstappen blamed gear sync issues.
But an early safety car calmed the first sprint of the 2022 season, after Guanyu Zhou gave Pierre Gasly too little room and ended up being punted into the wall by the AlphaTauri.
The introduction of sprint races last season provided less-than enthralling action but Saturday’s run in the Italian sun, after a chaotic qualifying session, brought out more entertainment.
Fernando Alonso put up stout resistance against Carlos Sainz before the Ferrari bust through and eventually finished fourth, with Sergio Perez in the Red Bull third on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
George Russell was quickest in an unrepresentative second practice on Saturday morning but the Mercedes struggled in the sprint, the Brit finishing 11th with teammate Lewis Hamilton 14th,
