Starting from pole position, Verstappen delivered a flawless performance to claim the second grand chelem of his career with pole position, fastest lap and race victory after leading every lap of the factory. In addition, the world champion claimed victory in Saturday’s Sprint to ensure he left Imola with a maximum weekend haul of 34 points.
Behind the leaders, Sainz was slow away from his grid slot and he was put under pressure by Daniel Ricciardo in the second McLaren. The Spaniard took a wide line into the first chicane but alongside him, Ricciardo slid and he tagged the rear left wheel of Sainz’s Ferrari.
Both spun into the gravel trap, but while the McLaren driver was able to crawl out to make his way back to the pit lane, Sainz was beached and he was forced to retire from the race and the Safety Car was released.
The Safety Car left the track at the end of lap four and Verstappen and Pérez controlled the start perfectly to hold on to the top two spots ahead of Norris who was defending hard from Leclerc. The Briton held off the Monegasque drive until lap seven but as they raced towards Tamburello, Leclerc closed in and breezed past the McLaren driver.
On lap 13, though, Russell eventually made his way past Magnussen with a brave move around the outside in the Variante Alta to claim P5. Magnussen then slid marginally wide on the following lap and Bottas passed the Haas on the run down the hill to Rivazza 1.
At the end of lap 16 Ricciardo became the first driver to make the move to slick tyres and the Australian emerged on medium compound Pirellis. Vettel followed from P9. The team pitted Pérez at the end of lap 18 and he also took on medium tyres. He was followed by Russell, Bottas and Magnussen as Verstappen and Leclerc stayed on intermediates.
Verstappen and Leclerc pitted at the end of the next lap for medium tyres, but while Verstappen got away in a solid 2.3 seconds but Leclerc was stationary for 3.7s. Despite the lost time he rejoined ahead of Pérez. But with cold tyres, Leclerc couldn’t keep the Mexican at bay and Pérez got past the Ferrari into the Villeneruve chicane.
At half distance, Verstappen held the lead 10 seconds clear of Pérez. The Mexican continued to hold Leclerc at bay with the gap between the two sitting at 1.3 seconds, while Norris sat in fourth just under 15 seconds behind the sole remaining Ferrari.
The race then settled as the drivers set about keeping their medium tyres alive. On lap 43 Verstappen pumped in the fastest lap to extend his lead over Pérez to 11.7s, while Pérez went more than two tenths of a second quicker than Leclerc to widen his advantage over the Ferrari driver to 2.9 seconds.
But then Leclerc’s race came undone. Pushing to reel in Pérez, the Ferrari driver got too much kerb into Variante Alta and he bounced, spun and slid into the barriers on the exit of the corner. He managed to limp back to the pit lane for checks and a new set of tyres but by the time he rejoined he had dropped to ninth place.
Verstappen meanwhile was in cruise control and on lap 55 he claimed the fastest lap point with a lap of 1:18.446. Pérez was now 12.8s behind but a comfortable 14 seconds clear of Norris.
Despite come under heavy pressure in the final laps, Russell kept Bottas at bay to claim fourth place for Mercedes. Leclerc managed to claw his way back to sixth place at the flag ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda and Vettel, while Magnussen finished ninth for Haas and Lance Stroll claimed the final point for Aston Martin.
Sixth place in the race and second place in the Sprint mean Leclerc still leads the Drivers’ Championship standings with 86 point, but he is now just 27 points ahead of Verstappen who now has 59 points. Pérez sits in third place with 54 points, five ahead of Russell. In the Constructors’ Championship, Ferrari still lead with 124 but Red Bull’s one-two in Imola means it is now just 11 points behind the Scuderia, with Mercedes third on 77 points.
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