A disastrous weekend for Ferrari, a Red Bull double, McLaren on the podium: what did the Emilia Romagna GP bring?

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix offered a lot. Ferrari had a completely disastrous weekend, while Red Bull recorded a brilliant result. So what were the results of the fourth round of the season?

Despite Saturday’s sprint, which determined the starting grid for Sunday’s race, the opening of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix took place in the wet. All drivers therefore wore intermediate tyres marked in green for the start of the race.

Already the opening lap of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix brought a collision and the associated dramatic start. After a mutual collision between Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz, it was the former who dropped to last place, while Sainz ended up in a duck and couldn’t dig himself out.

The safety car had to be brought out on track. He pulled back into the pits at the end of the fourth circuit. A very poor start, it must be added, by Charles Leclerc, who dropped down to fourth place behind Lando Norris in the McLaren.

Max Verstappen defended his first place at the start, with Red Bull co-driver Sergio Pérez ahead of Leclerc. Then Fernando Alonso dropped down the order over the following laps, his right sidewall having been significantly damaged by Mick Schumacher in a duel after the start of the race.

Alonso then pitted on the seventh lap of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix and retired his Alpine due to extensive damage.

Leclerc, however, was able to get past Norris after a few laps to take third place. It is here, however, that it should be noted that despite resolving the various technical issues that have plagued McLaren so far, the British team still cannot match the top two teams in terms of pace.

Kevin Magnussen was unable to keep up with the others. First George Russell passed him on lap 12, then Magnussen was overtaken by Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel.

Over the next few laps, the Imola circuit dried out and the drivers gradually changed to dry tyres.

Esteban Ocon, or rather the Alpine team, collected a five-second penalty from race HQ for dangerously allowing Ocon into Lewis Hamilton’s pit lane. Thanks to a stop by his mechanics, Leclerc then briefly got ahead of Pérez, but he regained his position.

On lap 37, the race directors allowed the active use of DRS, and the top ten order at the end of lap 38 was as follows.

Verstappen, Pérez, Leclerc, Norris, Russell, Bottas, Vettel, Magnussen, Cunoda, Stroll. However, the order didn’t change much as the end of the race approached, with Magnussen overtaking Cunoda on lap 48 anyway, who dropped to number 9.

But then came what the Ferrari stable would describe as a truly tragic weekend of sport. On lap 50, Leclerc went to his mechanics for the softest and fastest specification tyre, marked in red.

However, the Italian team hadn’t counted on a slightly longer stop, and Leclerc dropped to fourth behind Norris for the second time in the race. However, it didn’t take long for Leclerc to regain the podium position thanks to fresh tyres, whereupon he almost immediately built up a solid lead over fourth-placed Norris.

The two Red Bull drivers eventually made the same move, and on the fifty-fourth circuit, the infamous duel between Leclerc and Pérez took place.

The Ferrari driver drove too fast into the chicane of Turns 14 and 15, and his drive over the kerb put him on the clock. Leclerc subsequently ended up in the wall with a damaged front wing. Another pit stop did not pass him by.

As a result, Leclerc dropped to ninth, but fortunately for him, he was able to eliminate at least some of the damage and finished the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in sixth place.

So this is the final top ten points standings. A truly disastrous race weekend for Ferrari, while Red Bull had an excellent result and McLaren put in a great performance.

“It was a great race, we fully deserved it. The team has done a great job since Bahrain. We’ll continue to work hard, of course, but I love these conditions and I’m happy for the podium,” Norris said in a post-race interview

“You never know what these conditions will bring, you never know how competitive you can be. But it’s a well-deserved win,” said Max Verstappen of his first-place finish.

Source: F1 TV