Verstappen cruises, rivals chase shadows at Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Defending four-time champion Max Verstappen delivered a reminder of his unmatched racing prowess on Sunday when he drove his Red Bull to a commanding victory at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The 27-year-old Dutchman came home 6.1 seconds clear of Lando Norris, who was second, ahead of McLaren team-mate and championship leader Oscar Piastri.

Like Verstappen, Ferrari's seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton profited from two safety car interventions to finish fourth, after starting 12th on the grid, ahead of Williams' Alex Albon and Charles Leclerc, in the second Ferrari.

George Russell was seventh for Mercedes, ahead of Carlos Sainz in the second Williams, RB rookie Isack Hadjar and Yuki Tsunoda, a notable 10th in the second Red Bull after his high-speed crash in qualifying.

It was Verstappen’s second win this year and the 65th of his career, delivered in Red Bull's 400th Grand Prix. His success lifted him to 124 points in third place in the drivers' title race behind Piastri on 146 and Norris on 133.

"Thank you everyone for a great job today and on Saturday," said Verstappen, whose performance made clear he and Red Bull will not relinquish the title easily.

"It was a great weekend."

Piastri said he had lost the race at the opening corner.

"I braked too early," he said.

"But it was a great move by Max and then we had a few wrong calls so it was not one of our best Sundays."

Norris conceded that Verstappen and Red Bull had been stronger and faster than his team.

"Congratulations to Max," he said.

"We couldn’t match him this weekend."

Rampant Verstappen

The race, marking the 75th anniversary of the world championship’s maiden race at Silverstone on May 13, 1950, started in glorious warm sunshine with everyone on medium tyres, except Hamilton, Kimi Antonelli and three others, including Tsunoda, who chose hards for strategic reasons.

Piastri won the initial start, but left enough room for a rampant Verstappen to lunge past him at Tamburello and take the lead in a thrilling thrusting move that stirred a roar from the big sun-kissed crowd, part of an Imola record weekend attendance of 240,000.

Tsunoda, recovered from his huge crash on Saturday, started from the pitlane in his rebuilt Red Bull, clearly eyeing a one-stop strategy at a circuit with one of the longest pitlanes, 10 seconds slower than Miami.

Home favorite Antonelli had passed his Mercedes predecessor Hamilton on lap one pushing the Ferrari down to 12th while Norris sliced past Russell for third on lap 11 to begin his pursuit of the leaders.

Russell pitted for hards one lap later together with Leclerc, doing the same at Ferrari, emerging in 13th, before Piastri came in on lap 13 and rejoined in front of the Monegasque, but facing a solid jam of cars ahead of him.

In the lead, Verstappen enjoyed cruising at pace ahead of Norris, with a 10-second advantage by lap 20.

By lap 25, Piastri was past Hamilton and into the top six after a frustrating period held up by Tsunoda, on team orders. Two laps later, he passed Antonelli, 'the boy from Bologna', for fifth and then Hadjar for fourth before a brief virtual safety car was signaled when Esteban Ocon parked his Haas on the inside of Tosa.

The pause gifted Verstappen a cheap pit-stop. It was perfect for the leader, but left Leclerc fuming, swearing on the team radio.

This left Verstappen leading Norris with Albon third ahead of Piastri.

Fired up, Hamilton dispatched both Antonelli and then Hadjar with sweeping moves at Tamburello to take fifth but Verstappen remained in cool control, 18 seconds clear of Norris and Piastri.

On lap 46, Antonelli prompted a full safety car intervention when he pulled up at Tosa.

"I’ve got an issue," he reported, as lucky Max cashed in again, the champion taking his second 'cheap' stop followed by Norris.

Ferrari told Leclerc to stay out.

"No tyres left," they said, as Hamilton took more hards for a fiery final nine-lap sprint to the flag from seventh in a reshuffled order.