MAX WINNER, LEWIS LUCKY, LANDO EXCELLENT

Max Verstappen is the winner of the 2021 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. It is his first victory of the season and the 11th of his career. Lewis Hamilton finished second, keeping the lead in the championship due to the fastest lap. Lando Norris climbed to third place on the podium. In two weeks the fight will continue in Portimao, Portugal.

At the start, the flying Dutchman overtook Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton for first place after first corner. The Briton was forced to drive through the curbs and lost a fragment of the front wing.

At the exit of the 14th turn, Charles Leclerc overtook Perez for third place. Back Nicholas Latifi had trouble keeping the car on the wet track, losing control, crashed into Mazepin's car, after which he ended up in the barrier along the track.

The safety car, in this race Mercedes, had to go on the circuit.

Most drivers tried to maintain the temperature of their tires, but Mick Schumacher lost control of Haas' car, hitting the barrier opposite the pits. Its front wing was destroyed.

Due to the debris at the exit of the pits, they were closed for entry, so the German had to drive two laps without a front wing, after which he headed for new tires and nose of the car.

That was not the end of the excitement under the safety car, the next to spun off was Sergio Perez, losing several positions, but then regaining them, overtaking under SC, for which he received a 10-second penalty from the stewards.

A restart of the race was announced in the sixth lap.

Hamilton attacked Verstappen, but Max kept the lead and quickly moved away. Later Lewis had to defend himself from Leclerc's attacks. Carlos Sainz Jr. gained two places, but soon lost them. During this period of the race, the Spaniard had several off-track trips.

Pierre Gasly had a good pace on the wet tires, but later that strategy proved to be a right one. Almost all other drivers were on intermedia tires. When the rain stopped, the track dried up, so the Frenchman had to change his tires very early, in the 15th lap.

Lando Norris was stuck behind Daniel Ricciardo, his new teammate, at the time, after which he asked the team to let him pass. The Australian agreed and handed over the position to him, after which Norris quickly dissapear from him.

The 27th lap was driven when Red Bull was the first from lead cars to enter for new tires. The race leader replaced the intermedia tires with yellow tires. Hamilton stepped up the pace in the next round and lap later he entered for new tires. The mechanics of the Mercedes AMG had a weak reaction, with 4 seconds of stationary pit stop, in contrast to that of Red Bull with 2.2 seconds.

On lap 31, Lewis Hamilton, while overtaking George Russell for a full lap, spun off and ended up in the barriers. He managed to get out of the gravel with the help of reverse and drove to the pits with a damaged front wing.

At that moment, attacking Bottas, George Russell had to go beyond the ideal racing line, after which his car in contact with the wet grass, got carried away and ended up with contact between the two cars.

At a speed of 300 km/h, the two ended up in the barriers, filling the track with the carbon debris. The Safety car was deployed. After getting out of his car, Russell headed to Bottas, who was sitting in the car, and hit him on the helmet.

Stewards are investigating the incident. Due to the size of the collision, the race was stopped to remove debris. The drivers returned to the pit line, and their mechanics were able to repair the damage and change the tires.

The top ten ranking in those moments was Verstappen, Leclerc, Norris, Perez, Sainz Jr., Ricciardo, Stroll, Raikkonen, Hamilton, Tsunoda. Half an hour later a restart under the safety car was announced.

Prior to that, the stewards allowed the cars that were one lap behind (one of them was Hamilton) to return to the same lap with the leader. There was still almost half of the race ahead of us.

On the restart, Verstappen retained the lead. Lando Norris overtook Charles Leclerc for second place. Tsunoda, who knows how many times, ran into the gravel along the track, but managed to go back. The debutants in their new cars did not do very well, so also Sergio Perez spun of in the gravel, the car was not damaged, but he fell at the end of the order.

Lucky Lewis, using the superiority of the Mercedes AMG car from 39 to 60 lap, overtook Stroll, Ricciardo, Sainz Jr., Leclerc and Norris for the second place in the race. In the last laps he and the Dutchman exchanged a few fastest laps, but the extra point went to the Briton.

Max Verstappen finished 22 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris 1.7 seconds behind Mercedes. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. won fourth and fifth place, ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Lance Stroll. The Aston Martin driver scored points, and before the start he had problems with the brakes, which were repaired in a record time by his mechanics.

Gasly finished in eighth place, after a wrong strategy with wet tyres, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in ninth place. Esteban Ocon with the Alpine car won the last point by placing 10th, ahead of his teammate, Fernando Alonso, who destroyed the front wing on the way to the starting grid.

Sergio Perez finished 12th ahead of Tsunoda, while Sebastian Vettel had to withdraw from the race in the final lap due to gearbox problems. Both Haas drivers, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, are in the final standings of the race.

UPDATE: After the race the stewards reviewed several incidents:
- Five seconds and 1 penalty point on his licence for Lance Stroll. He moves to P8. He overtook Gasly by cuting the third corner. The Frenchman promoted to 7th place.

- 10 seconds STOP / GO penalty for Kimi Raikkonen, which was converted to 30 seconds after the race, for not entering the pit line for restart of the race. The Finn lost both points, Ocon and Alonso promoted to 9th and 10th place.

- No penalties for the Botas/Russell collision. It was a racing incident. We agree!!!

2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Race 63 laps, 309.049km., Weather: Clouds/Rain
CLASSIFICATION:
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIM/GAP
1.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1h28:32.430
2.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	+ 22.000
3.	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 23.702
4.	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 25.579
5.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	+ 27.036
6.	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	+ 51.220
7.	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	+ 52.818
8.	Lance Stroll*	Aston Martin	+ 56.909
9.	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	+ 1:05.704
10.	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	+ 1:06.561
11.	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	+ 1:07.151
12.	Yuki Tsunoda*	AlphaTauri	+ 1:13.184
13.	Kimi Räikkönen**	Alfa Romeo	+ 1:34.773
14.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	+ 1 lap
15.	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	DNF
16.	Mick Schumacher	Haas	+ 2 laps
17.	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	+ 2 laps
* 5 sec. penalty ** 30 sec. penalty FASTEST LAP: LEWIS HAMILTON - 1:16.702
NOT CLASSIFIED:
18.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	collision
19.	George Russell	Williams	collision
20.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	collision
HYBRID ERA - IMOLA 2020 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1h28:32.430 2021 Max Verstappen - Red Bull - 2h02:34.598 @MkFormula1 - REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

CLASSIFICATION AFTER 2/23 RACES
DRIVERS:
1.	Lewis Hamilton	44
2.	Max Verstappen	43
3.	Lando Norris	27
4.	Charles Leclerc	20
5.	Valtteri Bottas	16
6.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	14
7.	Daniel Ricciardo	14
8.	Sergio Pérez	10
9.	Pierre Gasly	6
10.	Lance Stroll	5
11.	Esteban Ocon	2
12.	Yuki Tsunoda	2
13.	Fernando Alonso	1
14.	Kimi Räikkönen	0
15.	Antonio Giovinazzi	0
16.	George Russell	0
17.	Sebastian Vettel	0
18.	Mick Schumacher	0
19.	Nikita Mazepin	0
20.	Nicholas Latifi	0
21.		0
CONSTRUCTORS:
1.	Mercedes AMG	60
2.	Red Bull	53
3.	McLaren	41
4.	Ferrari	34
5.	AlphaTauri	8
6.	Aston Martin	5
7.	Alpine	3
8.	Alfa Romeo	0
9.	Williams	0
10.	Haas	0