On Sunday, the Red Bull team dominated the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, the fourth round of the Formula 1 World Championship, where Dutch world champion Max Verstappen edged out his Mexican teammate Sergio Pérez.
Britain’s Lando Norris (McLaren) completed the podium with a third-place finish at the Italian circuit, where Ferrari had hoped to win in their stronghold, with Monaco’s Charles Leclerc leading the championship and finishing sixth despite starting in second place.
This is Verstappen’s second win this season after Saudi Arabia and the 22nd of his career.
“We were there. As a team, we have done well. I think the first two places are well deserved,” said the Dutchman after winning the race and setting the best lap after starting from pole position.
With this win, Verstappen finished second in the World Championship behind Leclerc, reducing the gap from 45 to 27 points to start the possibility of a second confrontation between riders and their teams this season.
“It’s not always easy to do something like this, but yesterday and the day before yesterday we were ready,” Verstappen said. “It was like a strong weekend. You never know how competitive you will be with the weather, but I think we did very good”.
“The start was very important, but after that you judge the conditions and timing of tire changes, because you have to decide the speed beforehand.”
For his part, his colleague Pires said he was happy to bring a smile to the Red Bull team.
“It was a really tough race. The most important thing today is not to make mistakes, because in such conditions it was very difficult. Winning the first two places is a great result for the team.”
“I’m happy to see everyone on the team smiling today and I’m happy for Max.”
And Norris, who finished third, said after taking the podium for the first time this season: “This is an amazing race. I’m happy. The team deserves it. It was a combination of difficult conditions, but we were able to take advantage of it. I like these conditions, so I always succeed.”
“Uncontrolled Machine”
On the other hand, Russell gave a strong impetus to Mercedes to finish the race in fourth place after starting in eleventh, thus beating the Alfa Romeo car and its Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas at the end.
On the other hand, Briton Lewis Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, again failed in this race with a miserable result, finishing 13th.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff apologized to an upset Hamilton via car after the race.
“I’m sorry I had to drive it today,” Wolf said. “I know the car is out of control, it was a terrible race.”
“Don’t worry Toto. Just keep working hard,” Hamilton replied. “We’ll get out of this… Mercedes isn’t good enough for the World Cup and he just needs to get his car fixed.”
Japan’s Yuki Tsunoda finished seventh ahead of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel and his Aston Martin in seventh place.
The race saw a major blow to Ferrari from the second lap as Spaniard Carlos Sainz dropped out for the second consecutive time after the Australian Grand Prix.
