Verstappen secures F1 Emilia-Romagna GP win despite Norris pressure
19th May 2024Feature image credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen has won the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix to secure his fifth win of the season, despite Lando Norris’ push to fight for the win.
Verstappen has claimed his 59th career victory at the Imola circuit, Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, to extend his championship lead over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who has moved up to second in the drivers standings.
However, it was not an easy win for the Dutchman as McLaren’s Norris applied the pressure late on and finished just under a second behind.
“Yeah, I think the whole race I have to push flat out to go to try and make it happen initially,” said Verstappen in Parc Ferme after the race.
“I think on the medium tyres we were quite strong. On the hard tyres was a bit more difficult to manage, especially the last 10-15 laps, I had no grip anymore – I was really sliding a lot.”
The two drivers started together on the front row, ahead of the race, and it looked as if Verstappen could control the race out in front. However, in the dying embers of the race, the two upped their pace and pushed ‘flat out.’
It was a sudden fight between Verstappen and Norris considering the two were once separated by six seconds in the final third of the race. Verstappen complained that his tyres weren’t up for the task and claimed his Pirelli tyres were ‘not working anymore.’
“I saw Lando closing in so yeah the last 10 laps,” Verstappen continued. “It was just flat out but it’s it’s very difficult when the tyres are not working anymore.
“You have to go flat out. I couldn’t afford to make too many mistakes, luckily we didn’t and yeah super happy for us to win here today”
Verstappen’s win came as an incredible drive from both himself and the team.
In Friday and Saturday’s Free Practice sessions, the Dutchman had problems with his RB20 and failed to set the fastest lap time across all three sessions.
However, he was the fastest driver out on track in qualifying following a helpful tow from Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg.
This is the second race victory for the Dutchman today, following his victory in a virtual 24-hour sim race with Team Redline around the Nurburgring.
Read more Formula 1 here:
- Piastri slapped with three-place grid drop for F1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
- Verstappen claims seventh pole position ahead of Emilia-Romagna GP
- F1 Emilia-Romagna: Leclerc completes Friday clean sweep with fastest lap in Imola
- Tsunoda looks back at Imola floods ahead of Emilia-Romagna GP
- Mercedes F1 hoping new Imola upgrades push team ‘in the right direction’
- Albon extends his F1 stay with ‘multi-year contract’ at Williams
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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.
