Verstappen Leads Imola Sprint Race
Calum Gill 16:23 23/04/2022
Max Verstappen overtook Formula 1 championship leader Charles Leclerc on the penultimate lap to win the first sprint race of the 2022 season, securing first place on the grid for Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.
Red Bull man Verstappen lost out to Leclerc’s Ferrari at the start, but had better pace in the closing stages of the 21-lap mini-race and put it to good use. Off the line, Verstappen’s getaway was not just poor enough for Leclerc to clear him almost immediately but also for Norris to challenge for second, albeit Verstappen - who sarcastically blamed “lovely gear sync” for the bad start - did manage to stay ahead of the Brit by braking slightly later into Turn 1. Right behind them, a Sergio Pérez lunge down the inside of Turn 1 first led to minor contact between him and Ricciardo, and then created a small touch between the latter and Magnussen - which permitted Pérez to overtake Ricciardo for fifth exiting the corner.
All cars involved escaped major damage, but the same could not be said for Guanyu Zhou further into the lap, the Alfa Romeo rookie getting pitched sideways by Pierre Gasly while trying to pass him around the outside of Piratella. “Of course, you can’t stay there!” was Gasly’s reaction on the radio, with Zhou out on the spot after hitting the wall and the Frenchman having to make a pitstop. Zhou will start from the pit lane after Alfa Romeo broke parc fermé rules. The safety car was withdrawn after four laps, Leclerc nailing the restart and right away breaking out of Verstappen’s DRS range, with the gap between the pair stabilising at just over a second from there on.
Yet with five laps to go Verstappen - spurred on by his race engineer telling him of graining on Leclerc’s front right tyre - got back within a second of the Monegasque and began to mount consistent pressure, which at the start of the penultimate lap translated into a pass around the outside of Tamburello. He went on to win by three seconds, securing eighth points to Leclerc’s seven - with the points tally for the sprints revised this season. Behind the pair, Perez made his way through to third place, making light work of first Magnussen and then Norris with DRS passes on the main straight, both completed well before the braking zone. Leclerc’s team-mate Carlos Sainz, who had started 10th and was eighth during the safety car, likewise made easy work of progressing through the field to complete the top four.
Norris and Daniel Ricciardo made up the top six for McLaren, Ricciardo working his way past Magnussen with a pass down the inside of Tamburello. The Dane was one of just three drivers to run mediums rather than softs, and was overtaken by Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas late on, settling for the single point for eighth place - with Bottas having previously fought past Alpine’s Fernando Alonso. The two Mercedes drivers both lost positions at the start and found themselves stuck in a DRS train led by Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel. Russell eventually cleared Vettel and reclaimed his 11th place, but Hamilton came up short and will start 14th.
