MAX IN CHAMPIONSHIP STYLE TO VICTORY IN IMOLA

Max Verstappen withstood a determined late-race charge from Lando Norris to take his fifth victory of the season at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc finishing third for Ferrari.

After a strong start in which Verstappen took the lead from pole and then ruthlessly controlled the bulk of the race, it looked like a third Imola win in a row was a certainty.

However in the final 10 laps, the Red Bull driver’s Hard tyres began to fade badly and Norris smelled blood. However, despite the gap falling to less than a second, Verstappen held on for a hard-won victory.

"The whole race I had to push flat out," said Verstappen. "On the Medium tyres, we were quite strong. On the Hard tyres, it was just a bit more difficult to manage, and especially the last 10 or 15 laps, I had no grip anymore. I was really sliding a lot. I saw Lando closing in. So the last 10 laps it was just flat out. I couldn't afford to make too many mistakes. Luckily, we didn't and I'm super happy of course to win here today."

When the lights went out at the start, Verstappen got away well to take the lead from pole as the field powered into the Tamburello chicane. Behind the top two Leclerc held third place ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Oscar Piastri.

At the front, with clear air ahead, Verstappen began to pull away from Norris and with seven laps on the board the Dutchman was almost two-seconds clear of the McLaren and as the first stint evolved the Red Bull driver worked his way to a five-second lead over Norris.

At the end of lap 23, Norris made his sole pit stop of the race and after switching to Hard tyres, the McLaren emerged behind Sergio Pérez who was running a long opening stint on Hard tyres. However, with older rubber onboard, the Mexican couldn’t keep the Briton at bay and he surrendered the position at the start of the following lap.

Verstappen then made his pit stop and after a 2.6s switch to Hard tyres he rejoined in fourth place, behind Lewis Hamilton. And as new leader Leclerc, second-placed team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. and Hamilton cycled through the pit lane for their stops Verstappen once again took the lead, 6.3s ahead of Norris.

Behind the top two Leclerc was again third, but Piastri had undercut the late-stopping Sainz Jr. to steal fourth place. Pérez, meanwhile, was now in sixth place on starting Hard tyres and with his pace flagging he soon dropped back to eighth behind the Mercedes AMG drivers.

At the end of lap 37 Pérez at last headed into the pits to move to Medium tyres and though he initially dropped back to his starting position of 11th, the pace advantage afforded his new Medium tyres allowed to swiftly reel in the drivers ahead.

On lap 39 he powered past the RB of Ricciardo and a lap later 40, with aid of DRS, breezed past Hülkenberg on the run to Tamburello. His next target was the second RB of Tsunoda and on lap 43 he again used DRS to steam past the Japanese driver on the pit straight to move up to P8.

At the front, things appeared to be going smoothly for Verstappen but with 10 laps remaining he came on team radio to complain that "my tyres don’t work" and over the following laps a 6.0s gap to Norris crumbled to four and then two seconds.

Despite the limitations, Verstappen stayed cool and though the gap dropped towards DRS range in the final three laps, the champion held on to take the chequered flag just 0.7s ahead of the McLaren.

With Norris second and Leclerc taking the final podium position, fourth place went to Oscar Piastri with the Australian driver finishing ahead of Sainz Jr. and the Mercedes AMG of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Pérez then crossed the line in P8 to take four points at the end of a good recovery from 11th place at the start. Ninth place went to Lance Stroll and the final point was claimed by Tsunoda.