15/05/2025 09:15
They had gone wheel-to-wheel briefly in the season-opening Bahrain
Grand Prix, but a mistake from Max Verstappen in running wide and
being forced to give the place back to Lewis Hamilton ended it as a
fight. But at Imola, the Dutchman set the scene for the first of
heated clashes that would occur that year in his Titanic battle
with Hamilton for the world championship. Verstappen was not fast
enough for the front-row for the second Emilia Romagna GP since its
2020 COVID return, with new team-mate Sergio Perez out-qualifying
him as Hamilton bagged another pole position. The start of the
race was wet, with the field on a mixture of inters and full wet
rubber, as Charles Leclerc spun off on the formation lap, but was
able to get going again and take the start. At lights out, the
front-row of Hamilton-Perez was slightly tardy off the line as
Verstappen moved initially to go through the middle, but eventually
settled on the inside line to the left. This would have the benefit
of placing him on the inside for the apex of Turn 1 and Hamilton on
the outside. As the field charged to Tamburello, through the gloom
appeared one Mercedes and one Red Bull, as Verstappen pulled off
what could be termed the first 'Verstappen special.' He simply made
sure he got to the apex first and ran Hamilton wide, off the track
and over the yellow sausage kerbs, causing minor damage to the
underfloor of the Mercedes. What was that about seven world
championships? By Lap 22, Sebastian Vettel had pitted for slicks,
with Verstappen following on Lap 27, as Hamilton made his own stop
a lap later, hoping the extra tour on warm inters could help him
leapfrog the Red Bull. A slow stop allowed Verstappen ahead as the
race was turned on its head on Laps 31 and 32. As Hamilton was
approaching Tosa through back-marker traffic, he lost control of
the W12, skating through the kitty litter and coming to rest up
against the barrier. He tried to drive out but nudged the barrier
and fell from second place and was lapped. But he got an extremely
lucky break. Next time by down the pit-straight, Williams' George
Russell attempted a move on the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, but
got it wrong and speared into the side of Bottas at over 200mph.
Fortunately, both drivers were okay as their cars sprayed debris
all over the track, leading to a red flag for clean-up and
recovery. Hamilton had fallen to eighth but for the restart, it was
now fully dry, and the Mercedes had gotten his lap back, but it
would not be easy to rescue a podium. Both Ferraris, McLarens and
the sister Red Bull of Perez were between leader Verstappen and
Hamilton, who had 29 laps to set off in pursuit. Perez kindly
removed himself from the equation with a spin, and by Lap 60,
Hamilton had finally passed the stubborn Norris for P2, effectively
wiping out his rare mistake at Tosa, but Verstappen was long gone,
over 20s up the road. It was 1-1 in terms of wins between the title
pair, but both said they were enjoying the cordial title fight, a
stance which would last right up until about 53 seconds into the
opening lap of the British GP at Copse corner...
