Verstappen wins again in Imola after surprising late challenge from Norris

The Imola Grand Prix made a return to the F1 calendar after being canceled last year due to heavy flooding. Anticipation was high because every single team had brought upgrades to the race. Add to that the fact that Verstappen wasn’t feeling great in the car during the practice sessions and the strong form that McLaren had shown in Miami, and it was gearing up to be a pretty interesting race.

Well… it wasn’t. Not for the most part at least. The majority of the race was largely a procession where the battles were being fought in the pitlane more than on the track. McLaren proved they now definitely had the pace to take the fight to Ferrari and even make things challenging for Red Bull, but up ahead Max Verstappen was just driving away as we had come to expect from him. 

The commentators called the race “a slow burner”, and that term might be doing some heavy lifting. The most exciting parts came from the drivers outside the top ten and those on the edges of the points. It was actually surprising to see Sergio Perez fall into that latter category as well. The Mexican teammate of Verstappen had shown great form in the early stages of this season but was now struggling to stay within the top ten. Lance Stroll was also constantly on the edge of points, which isn’t something new. What was new however, was that his teammate Fernando Alonso was outside of the points as well. The Spaniard struggled to make sense of the upgrades all weekend and that culminated in him getting nowhere near the top ten at any point and ultimately retiring his car.

Late fight at the front

Verstappen meanwhile kept extending his lead, until he suddenly wasn’t. Norris was fighting with Charles Leclerc for second, when all of the sudden the Ferrari driver dropped back and Norris began charging forward. With five laps left to go, he was now within two seconds of Verstappen and it looked like he might actually challenge his friend for the win. With both drivers getting frequent updates from their engineers - which they tried to silence in a tense but polite way - the battle for the win was suddenly on. Norris was inching closer every lap… but it wasn’t enough. He finished only seven tenths behind Verstappen, but that was seven tenths too much.

So what does this mean? Well, it means that Verstappen has won five out of the seven races this year and that his lead on Leclerc - who overtook Perez for second in the standings - is now almost two races. But it also means that the cracks in Red Bull’s invincibility have begun to show. One loss can be explained away as a fluke or bad luck. But losing a race and then immediately getting challenged by that same rival in the next race, even though you brought upgrades… well that’s a little concerning for Red Bull. It’s far too early to think of a title fight or a championship for Norris or McLaren. But the indomitable form from the beginning of the season has definitely evaporated. And with both Ferrari’s and McLaren’s in the points and Perez down in 8th, it might just mean that Red Bull will struggle a bit more in the Constructors Championship this year.