A race of what could've been for Lando Norris
DRC's Imola GP Review
As the F1 circus set itself up at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino
Ferrari, the excitement of the local fans was vivid. It was after a sabbatical year that the Formula 1 proceedings reached the city of Imola, with the 2023 race called off due to the floods in the area. The trophy presented to the podium finishers also had a nice touch giving a tribute to the general masses of the city of Imola.
A Tribute to Senna and Ratzenberger
The race weekend began with former F1 driver and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel spearheading a tribute to Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger, who tragically lost their lives at this track 30 years ago. The entire F1 paddock and some people from the F2 camp also showed up. The team personnel did a run around the Imola circuit in a bid to remember the Fallen F1 drivers.
Practice sessions
As the race weekend rolled into Friday, the first practice sessions came about. Charles Leclerc in the scarlet Ferrari topped the timesheets in the first practice followed by George Russell and Carlos Sainz in close company.
With many teams bringing their upgrades to Imola, the drivers were eager to put theory to the test as the sessions started. Oliver Bearman, Ferrari and Haas’ reserve driver went out on the track in Kevin Magnussen’s car.
Russel was atop the leaderboard as the session started. The clock, however, was soon stopped as Albon came to a halt due to a Mechanical Failure causing a red flag.
As the session continued, many drivers started doing soft runs and it was Leclerc who posted a time of 1:17:438s to go at the top of the time sheets. Hamilton suffered a spin owing to the windy conditions on track but managed to escape unscathed.
The session ended with Leclerc at the top, albeit with an even quicker time, followed by George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez, and Max Verstappen in the top 5.
The second practice started at 1700 local time, providing another opportunity for the teams to gather data. However, the top step of the leaderboard remains unchanged. Charles Leclerc posted a time of 1:15:906 to stay atop followed in second and third by Oscar Piastri and a surprising showing by Yuki Tsunoda.
Elsewhere, there was trouble for the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, who came back into the pits without setting any lap time. The Williams experienced a slow start to their session as both of their cars were seen up on stands at the start of the session.
Verstappen still struggled for grip throughout his session. He was further frustrated by a slow-moving Lewis Hamilton on the racing line, who later promptly put up his hand in apology.
The session ended with Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, Yuki Tsunoda, Lewis Hamilton, and George Russell in the top 5.
Saturday rolled on and it was finally a non-ferrari driver topping the practice session. Oscar Piastri led the field followed by Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz. Elsewhere, the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso and Redbull of Sergio Perez both met the barriers in different incidents bringing out the red flags twice during the session.
Qualifying
Q1
As the first session of qualifying started, the Aston Martin garage was frantically working in Alonso’s car after his fp3 crash.
Their efforts, however, didn’t bear fruit as Alonso got eliminated in a lowly 19th position.
Other drivers getting knocked out were - Bottas, Zhou, Magnussen, Alonso, Sargeant
Q2
For the second session, it was Mercedes who was looking at the brink of danger. They did make it in the final top 10 along with both the Vcarbs in an impressive outing. It was Perez this time who got eliminated in the 11th position.
Other drivers getting knocked out were knocked out: Perez, Ocon, Stroll, Albon, Gasly
Q3
For the final shootout for the pole, It was Verstappen who set the benchmark time of 1:14:746. In the end, the closest anyone got to Max was Oscar Piastri setting a lap time 0.074 seconds more than the Dutchman.
The final top five for the race were Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, and Carlos Sainz.
Oscar Piastri was however handed a three-place grid drop for impeding Kevin Magnussen in Q1.
Alonso on the other hand started from the pitlane as his camp decided to do some suspension changes trying to save his weekend.
Race
Come Sunday everyone was buzzing with excitement. Redbull was looking slightly troublesome with its grip levels. This coupled with Mclaren and Ferrari’s optimistic pace looks like the recipe for a happening race.
As the five red lights went out, it was Max Verstappen who got the better start from Lando Norris. With Norris having to slightly defend into Turn 1 from the charging Ferraris. Elsewhere, Lewis Hamilton was making places at the start as he slotted into p7 while Perez overtook Ricciardo to move into the top 10.
Soon after the start, Verstappen started to pull away from the pack extending his lead up to a second by the fourth lap, with Norris a further second ahead of the number 16 Ferrari. Carlos Sainz was also sticking it close with Leclerc with a fast-moving Oscar Piastri following him.
The Mercedes looked to be in a No-Man’s land as they stayed in a lonely P6 and P7. With the closest contention in the form of Nico Hulkenberg heading a DRS train, it looked as if it would remain that way for the Mercedes drivers.
Despite being in the DRS of Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri wasn’t able to find a way by. This, however, gave Leclerc a chance to pull away from the pack.
Trouble came along for Alex Albon as he went out after his first pit stop, he reported his front right tyre not being bolted correctly. He did manage to make it back to the pits, however.
By this time, the time for the round of pitstops came along as Ricciardo and Alonso moved into the pits to change their tyres. On the track, after being stuck behind Hulkenberg’s Haas, Tsunoda decided to come into the pits in a bid to try and undercut Hulkenberg, and it worked as the driver joined behind the Vcarb.
Piastri however, was still unable to move past Sainz. Further on the race track, it became known by replays that Perez had lost some crucial seconds as skid off track allowing 9th place Stroll to get close, but not past.
By this point in the race, the front-runners started to pit as well. George Russell came into the pits to change for a set of hard tyres, soon followed by Lando Norris. Lando eventually came out in P7 behind the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
After some laps, Verstappen too came into the pits, followed one lap later by Leclerc. This left Sainz and Hamilton at the front, who too pitted by the 28th lap. Sainz made his way back on track behind Perez with old tyres.
As the race completed its 30 laps, the top five were Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc, Piastri and Sainz. Perez still hadn’t pitted by this time as his old hards were now starting to show their age.
Elsewhere, Tsunoda was looking really fast as he cleared Zhou to slot into p11.
By Lap 38, Perez finally made his pitstop, but not before letting Hamilton get past quite easily as he was on a different strategy. Perez came out in P11 behind Ricciardo whom he quickly cleared to enter in the points scoring territory.
Back at the front, Leclerc was pressurizing Norris as the fight for P2 on track was heating up.
By Lap 43, Perez had ended up in 8th position after clearing Tsunoda. This was how far he’d go as he finished the race p8.
Elsewhere, Stroll was now chasing Hulkenberg for P10 and later managed to catch and overtake the German. Further down the road, Magnussen had managed to pass Zhou after a lengthy battle for P15.
Meanwhile, Stroll had even passed Tsunoda for P9 on track. At the front of the pack, Norris had managed to drop a charging Leclerc and at the same time closed the gap to Verstappen to 4 seconds by Lap 54/63.
With just 7 laps to go, Lando dropped the gap to just 2 seconds as continued on his charge. A frustrated Verstappen was heard on the radio as he voiced his anger at Tsunoda for not moving out of the way fast enough under the blue flag conditions.
As the laps ticked down, Albon became the sole car to retire out of the race. All the while, the gap between P1 and P2 dropped to 1.5 seconds.
Replays showed Norris absolutely driving on the edge in order to catch Verstappen.
In the end, it was a a case of a day late and a dollar short as Max crossed the line first, followed by Norris, a merely 0.725 seconds late to the line.
The Mercedes looked in a No-man’s land as they finished a lonely p6 and p7, followed by Perez in P8.
Elsewhere, Stroll scored the only points for Aston Martin as he crossed the line in P9, while Tsunoda occupied the last points-paying position.
Russell also got an additional point for getting the race's fastest lap.
At the interview, Verstappen said,
“I think the whole race I had to push flat out to try and make a gap initially. I think on the medium tyres we were quite strong, on the hards tyres it was just a bit more difficult to manage, especially in the last 10, 15 laps. I had no grip anymore, I was really sliding a lot.”
The Championship standing looks like this after the Imola Grand Prix.|
We move to Monaco: the Crown Jewel of Formula 1 next,
While the current regulation cars’ size makes it difficult to overtake at the principality, the Quali session is a must-watch.