Max Verstappen took victory at the 2024 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, but after 63 laps he was struggling with Lando Norris, who was ready to chase him.
We analyze the keys to the Red Bull driver’s victory and how McLaren could have achieved victory without Sergio Perez.
All the details behind Max Verstappen’s victory and how Lando Norris was able to win at Imola
So far yet so close. That feeling remains for the McLaren team, which rowed against the current for almost three-quarters of the race, reaching an extraordinary pace that outpaced Red Bull and Ferrari with 20 laps to go.
Verstappen opened a comfortable gap at the start and avoided Lando Norris’ attack under DRS. After that, on the medium compound from lap 14 onwards, combined with the severe degradation of MCL38 (the worst among the top teams), they showed exceptional driving and gained a gap of more than 5. Seconds seemed to have predicted a very boring race.
In the following graph, the steep slope of the fuel-corrected lap time linear regression indicates poor tire management (in this case, a medium compound).
Due to this significant degradation, McLaren attempted to stop Norris and undercut on lap 22 with the intention of closing the gap, but this proved to be a decisive moment in how close Norris would come to victory.
With a well-placed pit stop of 2.4 seconds, the McLaren driver changed strategy and came out just behind Perez on the hard tyres, but the McLaren was able to avoid an encounter with the Mexican rider in front of him. Could the outage have been anticipated or delayed?
It’s difficult to say for sure, but it seems likely that Norris’ tires were too worn to allow him to delay his stop and reattempt a push lap to get in front of Perez.
Additionally, Red Bull was aware of the situation and could have asked the Mexican to push on hard tires to stop this attempt. Therefore, Red Bull’s excellent handling of the race situation from the wall may have been the biggest influence on their race win.
There is no doubt that Norris’ time was lost due to Perez’s lap, and when comparing his outlaps after the stoppage, the McLaren driver was +1.091 seconds behind Verstappen’s outlap in clean air, and at the finish line. The difference was only +0.725 seconds.
But closing gaps is not the same as overtaking on track, and with a car with a lower top speed and Verstappen known to be a good defender, it would have been a very difficult task for Norris.
But Perez’s help and Red Bull’s moves were crucial in avoiding putting Verstappen in an even bigger predicament than he was at the end of the race.
Like in Miami, Verstappen also struggled on the hard compound. It’s true that he didn’t have much trouble starting his stint this time, and in fact, being faster than Norris at the start of his stint was one of the keys to the Dutchman’s victory.
However, after lap 44, the Dutchman’s tires got cold and he entered a high degradation zone.
Norris, on the other hand, felt very comfortable again on the hard tires and was just a lap or two away from battling Verstappen for the win on track. It was a very close game between the two sides and gives us hope that there will be plenty of spectacle for the rest of the season.
Charles Leclerc completes a solid race and takes P2 place at WDC
It wasn’t a particularly bad race for Ferrari overall. Although McLaren was clearly stronger in qualifying, the SF-24’s race pace was so encouraging that Leclerc was able to finish on the podium in his home country and advance to P2 in the Drivers’ World Championship.
The Monaco driver ran at Norris’ pace for virtually the entire race, except at the end when the McLaren driver tried his best to catch Verstappen.
Like Norris, Leclerc also found himself at the exit of the pitstop alongside Sergio Perez, and the Ferrari driver was ready to chase the Briton, but thanks to Verstappen’s undercut, he was unable to make his way to Leclerc. The gap could be opened by 4 seconds.
However, Leclerc, who was on hard tires, had a good early pace and closed the gap in just 15 laps, but by the 44th lap, the McLaren had regained its energy, and in a final catch-up, it pulled away from Ferrari and began fighting for the victory. .
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Mercedes avoids on-track fight between Lewis Hamilton and George Russell to score bonus points
Although Mercedes was far from its target, it felt good with its upgrade package and had a good weekend.
And in the “no man’s land” situation during the race, their overall objective was clear: it was more the team than the driver.
Just when it looked like George Russell could overtake Lewis Hamilton and secure sixth place, the Mercedes wall called him into the pits.
Hamilton was starting to shave off a lot of time from Russell and could potentially put Russell in trouble on the final laps. Mercedes decided to stop Russell in order to maintain their sixth-to-seventh place, but they swapped positions.
This will also allow Russell, with fresher tyres, to score the fastest lap of the race and earn additional championship points, taking his tally to 64 points so far this season.
Read next: Emilia Romagna GP: Lando Norris agonizes closer to second win as Max Verstappen holds on at Imola
