F1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix: Max Verstappen wins as Charles Leclerc crashes
24th April 2022Red Bull’s Max Verstappen secured his second grand prix win of the season as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc lost control of his F1-75 into the final chicane.
How the race unfolded…
Verstappen lined up on pole position after he secured the win in Saturday’s sprint qualifying. As rain had fallen prior to the race start, everyone was on the intermediate tyres.
When the lights went out, Verstappen managed to get the jump on Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – who lined up beside him, as did Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
However, by the first chicane – at turn two, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo tangled with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. As a result, the Ferrari and McLaren driver went into the gravel trap but Ricciardo managed to get out of the gravel while the Spaniard was beached and out of the race.
The safety car was deployed as race control later deemed there would be no further action on the incident. During the safety car period, Ricciardo became the first driver to pit but the Aussie driver whiched to another set of intermediate tyres.
The safety car finally returned to the pits at the end of lap five. As Verstappen restarted the race, he became under pressure from his teammate but the Mexican driver didn’t make a move into the first true braking zone.
On lap seven, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso came into the pits to retire from the race after he suffered damage on the floor and the bodywork of his A522.
A lap later, the Italian tifosi erupted into applause and cheers as Leclerc moved up one place (from fourth) as he overtook the McLaren of Lando Norris into the Tamburello chicane braking zone. By lap 10, Leclerc was still six seconds behind Verstappen who remained out in the lead.
While the track began to dry, and create a dry line for the slick tyres, it looked as if rain was on its way.
Mercedes’ George Russell had an intense fight in the early stages for P5. Into the Tamburello chicane, Russell managed to make a move but ran wide over the sausage kerbs. This allowed Magnussen to regain the position. However, Russell climbed up to P5 after he made a move into the final chicane: the Variante Alta (turns 14 and 15).
While his teammate, Lewis Hamilton was down in P11 just behind Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.
On lap 17, Ricciardo became the Guinea pig for the rest of the field as he came in to swap his intermediates for the dry, slick medium compound tyres – despite being last. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) and Alexander Albon (Williams) all came in to swap for the dry slick tyres.
Of the front-runners, Perez came in to swap for the mediums as fifth-placed Russell came in as well.
As a series of drivers came in to swap for their inters for the slicks, Hamilton was reported to have made contact with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon inside the pit lane. It was quickly under investigation by race control. With the overcut, Leclerc pitted a lap later and returned back out onto the track ahead of Perez but the Mexican driver returned ahead of the Monegasque.
Ocon was soon given a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release (pictured in tweet above).
On lap 25, double waved yellow flags were waved at the Alta chicane as the German driver drove across the damp grass and ended up in a spin on the exit of the final chicane. Fortunately, the German was able to continue on without further issues.
As the race reached its halfway mark, the majority of drivers were on the mediums – while Ricciardo was on the hard, white-ringed, tyres, while the drag reduction system wasn’t yet available for the drivers to utilise. However, on lap 34, DRS was finally enabled.
After Hamilton was lapped by his 2021 championship rival, the seven-time world champion remained close enough to the gearbox of Verstappen to close the gap on 13th-placed Gasly. But, the #44 Mercedes still wasn’t able to pass the Frenchman.
On lap 50, Leclerc came into the pits for a second time to swap his medium tyres for the red-ringed, soft tyres, in a bid to put in the fastest lap and pressure Red Bull with 13 laps to go.
As a result, Perez reacted to Ferrari’s pit stop call a lap later and the Mexican came into the pit lane to change his wheels for the softs – Verstappen followed suit soon after.
However, Leclerc suffered late drama as he chased after Perez. As the Monegasque chased the Mexican Red Bull he lost control of his F1-75 into the Variante Alta chicane and took too much kerb. Fortunately, Leclerc was able to get going again but lost positions to Norris. The Ferrari driver went straight into the pit lane, to swap his front wing and put on a fresh set of softs and returned to the track P9.
However, the last-standing Ferrari managed to back up to P6 as Verstappen crossed the line as the victor, ahead of Perez and Norris respectively.
That’s it for the article: F1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix: Max Verstappen wins as Charles Leclerc crashes! What an end! What do you think, should’ve Charles Leclerc settled for third? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula One here!
- F1 Emilia-Romagna Sprint Qualifying: Max Verstappen secures pole
- F1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix: George Russell fastest ahead of Sprint
- F1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix: Max Verstappen takes pole for sprint
- F1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc top in wet practice
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.