Max Verstappen held off a late charge from McLaren’s Lando Norris to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The Dutchman, despite struggling with his tyres in the final part of the race, took his fifth victory in seven races this year to further his stranglehold on a fourth world title.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc comfortably beat McLaren’s Oscar Piastri for the final podium place to move into second in the championship, ahead of Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez.
Norris went into the final three laps just 1.3 seconds behind Verstappen, but was not quite close enough to have the DRS overtaking aid on the final lap, and the world champion hung on.
in the early laps it appeared as if Verstappen would dominate with ease.
He retained the lead at the start while Norris fended off an attack from Leclerc into the first chicane, and it soon became clear that the improvements Red Bull had made to the car to enable Verstappen to take pole position had also been effective in race trim.
As the race entered its final third, the pattern changed. Initially, Norris was under pressure himself, from Leclerc, who was with within a second of the McLaren and in range to use the DRS overtaking aid with 20 laps to go.
Norris began to ease away from the Ferrari and close Verstappen down but it came 1 lap to later when he reached the DRZ detection point and Verstappen did just enough to get the win.
Piastri took forth as Sainz had a lonely race to fifth place, not able to keep pace with the top four, but comfortably ahead of the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Perez claimed a disappointing eight with RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, so impressive in qualifying seventh, and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll taking the final points positions in ninth and 10th.
