TOPS
Verstappen and Red Bull savor
It looks like a perfect weekend for Red Bull.
Max Verstappen dominated qualifying on Friday, the sprint race on Saturday and the main race on Sunday.
His 22nd career win and second this season.
Max Verstappen therefore garners big points (34 over the whole weekend) just like Red Bull.
With the second place of Sergio Perez, that makes 58 points collected by the Austrian mark in Imola.
To discover
Formula 1: the calendar for the 2022 season
Formula 1: manufacturers' classification
Formula 1: drivers classification
Max Verstappen JENNIFER LORENZINI / PANORAMIC
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Norris returns to the podium
Already on the podium at Imola in 2021, Lando Norris did it again on Sunday in Emilia Romagna.
The Briton, fifth at the start, gushed as the lights went out to take third from Leclerc.
Quickly overtaken by the Ferrari, the McLaren sailed in fourth position for a long time before taking advantage of the mistake of the Monegasque (see below) to take third and climb on the podium, his fifth in his career.
After a complicated start to the season in Bahrain, Norris is doing well with a seventh place in Saudi Arabia, a fifth in Australia and therefore a third place in Imola.
Read alsoF1: Verstappen wins the Emilia-Romagna GP, Leclerc and Ferrari take on water
Russell and Tsunoda, the lifts of the day
If Lewis Hamilton fought in Emilia Romagna (see below), this is not the case of George Russell.
Eleventh on the grid after a difficult start to the weekend, the Briton took a good fourth place at the finish on Sunday despite a single-seater lacking in performance.
This allows Mercedes to score big points all the same.
Another great race, that of Yuki Tsunoda.
The Japanese started from 13th place.
In the end, he finished seventh and returned to the points zone he hadn't known since Bahrain.
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Aston Martin opens its counter
The green cars were the only ones not to score points this season.
It is now done.
Sebastian Vettel took eighth place while Lance Stroll finished tenth.
These points (5) were not necessarily expected but they do a lot of good for the British team, which has been suffering for many months.
FLOPS
Hamilton, the Stations of the Cross
The seven-time world champion was eager to leave Imola and we can understand that.
Modest thirteenth, stuck for a large part of the race behind Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton was never able to fight for a top 10 while his teammate took fourth place, with equal car.
This necessarily calls out.
Stunned at the end of the Grand Prix, the leader of Mercedes seemed really affected by this situation:
“A difficult day.
I'll be at the factory tomorrow but there's not much I can do.
I just try to stay positive.
And
the news is not reassuring.
His Mercedes will be the same in Miami in a fortnight and we will have to wait in Spain to receive improvements.
A galley season for number 44.
Lewis Hamilton JENNIFER LORENZINI / REUTERS
Ferrari goes through
At home, the Scuderia was expected and disappointed.
Carlos Sainz, just extended, missed his weekend.
Having made a mistake in qualifying on Friday, he managed to climb back up from tenth to fourth place on Saturday in the sprint.
On Sunday, his race lasted only a few meters.
The Spaniard was harpooned by Daniel Ricciardo from the first corners causing his retirement, the second in a row.
For Charles Leclerc, the weekend was a little better with a second place in the sprint but his fault on the 53rd lap cost him the podium on Sunday.
Finally sixth, the Monegasque scored a few points but lost ground to Max Verstappen and Ferrari saw Red Bull come back.
The French off the hook
Pierre Gasly, twelfth, and Esteban Ocon, fourteenth, the weekend was not good for the French at Imola.
Never in the game, they fought in the peloton without being able to come back.
For Gasly, it challenges when you see the good form of Tsunoda, seventh at the finish.
For Ocon, it was more expected because the Frenchman had already experienced problems with his gearbox on Friday, announcing a difficult weekend.
A Sunday without for Alpine since Fernando Alonso was forced to retire at the start of the race.