The 2021 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix was a frenetic race but did we expect anything else considering the wet conditions at the start of the race. But Max Verstappen took the lead at the start, and bar a small mistake on the safety car restart, led more or less every single lap, and in the end won the race by 21 seconds.
It was an eventful day for Lewis Hamilton, who put Max under pressure throughout the first part of the race, trying to do what he did at Istanbul last year by turning his intermediates into slicks. But a slightly slow pitstop ruined that effort and when lapping George Russell, he slid off into the gravel at Tosa, and was lucky to extract himself from the gravel, albeit with a broken front wing.
But George Russell would also be partially responsible for Lewis’s lifeline. Going into Tamburello, he collided with Valtteri Bottas, who was having a bad day down in tenth already, at high speed, sending both into the barriers at speed. Thankfully both drivers emerged unscathed, but there was a lot of debris on the track resulting in a red flag. For the second year running it was heartbreak for George at Imola, having been running in the points up until then.
This put Lewis back into contention, and he managed to seize his way through the field to get back up to second, and with that crucial point for fastest lap, he maintained the points lead. He did have some tough customers though, in the form of Lando Norris, who did everything he could to fend him off and still did an incredible job to take the final podium position on the softer tyres.
The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished just behind in fourth and fifth, showing good pace at a home race, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo who had a quiet race to sixth. Lance Stroll grappled with gearbox issues throughout the race but managed to bring his car home in seventh ahead of Pierre Gasly, who fell down the order after starting on the wet tyre, which proved to be the wrong choice, but the red flag put him back in contention for points. Kimi Raikkonen and Esteban Ocon rounded out the points, taking their team’s first points of the season.
Fernando Alonso finished in eleventh ahead of Sergio Perez, who had a tough day, picking up a penalty for overtaking under the safety car after a spin. He was still running in fourth but lost it at the Villeneuve chicane. Yuki Tsunoda also dropped it at the Villeneuve chicane and finished in thirteenth ahead of Antionio Giovinazzi in fourteenth. Sebastian Vettel retired late on to save his gearbox after a tough day but was classified fifteenth, with the two Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin rounding out the classified finishers.
There were 3 retirements. Valtteri Bottas and George Russell retired after their high speed collision, whilst Nicholas Latifi crashed on the first lap after failing to spot Nikita Mazepin alongside, putting him in the barrier.
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