By Carol M. Creasey
Last weekend at Imola, Free Practice 1 showed some solid improvements for Mercedes, and finished with George Russell second on the timesheets, and Lewis Hamilton seventh.
In Free Practice 2 Lewis was 4th and Russell 5th. Lewis was three tenths away from Leclerc who topped both sessions. However, the surprise of the day was Verstappen, who seemed to struggle through both sessions, and was visibly frustrated. In second practice he was 7th. In Qualifying Lewis and George got through to Q3, and qualified in 8th and 6th place respectively. Once again, their car just doesn’t have the pace over 1 lap, so they both realised they had all the work to do on Sunday to get further up the grid.
Sunday was a sunny and bright day, contrary to the rain that had been predicted. During the drivers’ parade, Lewis spoke about how hard it was to pass on this track, and he was going to do his best to get past Tsunoda, the driver in 7th place, at the start. He did a lightening start, and was past the Japanese driver immediately, which put him just behind his team-mate. Verstappen pulled away at the start, and then built up a lead of 7 seconds. Unusually, there were no crashes or safety cars in this race, and because it was virtually impossible to overtake, fans who were watching described it as a “bore fest”. But, towards the end of the race, it became clear that after only one stop Verstappen had worn his tyres out, whereas Norris, who was in 2nd position had not. Gradually during the last 20 laps, Norris started to reel him in, and suddenly the race became alive.
After his pit stop, Lewis came out in 9th position, he got past Stroll and Perez to get himself up to 7th, and Russell was in 6th. Lewis had also looked after his tyres, and was ready to pass Russell, who had completely worn his down, and the team felt Russell was in danger of not finishing the race. The first time they asked Russell if he wanted to pit he refused, but later they told him he must box, so he came in, and with his fresh tyres was able to get the fastest lap. This gave him an extra point. Meanwhile Lewis had then moved up to 6th, which is where he finished.
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By the last lap, Norris had gotten his gap of 7 seconds to Verstappen down to less than 1 second, and everyone was watching with bated breath. However, Verstappen just managed to hold him off to claim the victory.
But what is now exciting for Formula One, in that another team has actually managed to catch up with the dominant Red Bull. Also, Ferrari is not far behind, as Charles Leclerc took 3rd place, much to the delight of the passionate Tifosi. It was the first time a podium has happened for Ferrari at Imola since 2006. On that day it was claimed by Michael Schumacher.
Mercedes would now also love to join the party at the top of the grid, but the positive to take from this weekend is they have made a small step forward. Lewis thanked the team afterwards for all their efforts. They will continue to work steadily to improve performance and speed. In the meantime, races look to be more closely fought, so fans can look forward to seeing proper racing. It seems the Red Bull is no longer dominant.
Be sure to follow Carol on X @eagertogo and visit her website www.carolmcreasey.com!
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