Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix: How Max Verstappen caught McLaren by surprise in Imola

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Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix: How Max Verstappen caught McLaren by surprise in Imola

Had McLaren shown the pace advantage they had in Miami, or Bahrain, or China, or Australia, it might not have mattered, even on a track where overtaking is as notoriously difficult as Imola.

But they didn’t. Piastri could hold Verstappen for a while, but then began to feel his tyres going away, and McLaren decided to pit him.

It was the wrong decision – on this day, the tyres went through a phase where they felt like they were going off, but then came back again. But all it did was change which McLaren finished second and third.

Verstappen believed that there were two combined explanations for his improved form. Red Bull had brought some upgrades, and they had worked. But there was also the track itself.

As at Suzuka – his other win this year – or Jeddah, where Verstappen went toe-to-toe with Piastri, the track, as Verstappen put it, “has quite a few high-speed corners, which I think our car likes”.

He added: “It’s very track specific. I mean, every time that we have been really competitive, it’s been high-speed tracks, high-speed corners.

“We still have work to do, but I do think it’s been a very positive weekend for us.

“Friday was very difficult still, but then I think we found a better set-up for Saturday. And I just hope that we can use that a bit more often because it definitely brought the car in a better window.”

Norris said: “That’s where we’ve suffered the whole season so far, the high-speed corners. So we have to work in that area, and maybe that’s proved to hurt us a little bit more this weekend.

“We said it from the beginning that we have to keep working hard. Max has out-qualified us several times, and their pace just converted today into Sunday.

“Sometimes they’ve been ahead, but their pace on Sunday has not been too strong. They’ve maybe worked on some things, and their pace was better today. That’s the price we pay for not being quick enough.”

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