After qualifying, there was a prospect of a close race, but prospects don't always match reality. That's the shortest way to describe what happened this afternoon in Imola.
A good start was a key issue for the Red Bull Racing chasers, or rather it would have been, because it did not happen… Max Verstappen started flawlessly as usual, Lando Norris tried to get ahead of him, and although he did not do badly, he had no realistic chance of catching the Dutchman. However, the promised excitement was badly missed, only Alexander Albon's bad tire change in 20 laps was worth noting. There were hardly any battles, just train riding, only Oscar Piastri tried to scout Carlos Sainz, with little success.
The wheel changes didn't add any color to the formula either, Verstappen was getting further and further ahead at the front, and the front lines were getting stiffer behind him. Finally, Piastri managed to peel himself past the Spaniard, but in the meantime we could easily draw the conclusion: this was not the race of the year. We had to wait until lap 44 for another memorable event: Charles Leclerc started to close in on Norris, and the Monegasque had a good chance of competing for second place. There were only five laps left when McLaren suddenly started to work under Norris, and the Briton started to push him terribly, and, having reduced his deficit to a quarter, he was running on the Red Bull's neck...
What the first 61 laps of the race didn't give us, the last two made up for. Lando Norris drove like crazy Max Verstappen, who although he couldn't catch him, saved the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with a spectacular finish. Charles Leclerc still had a chance to finish on the podium, but Toto Wolff wasn't wrong when he said the other day that Scuderia Ferrari is no longer the second force.
