Who doesn’t love a wet race? The Pirelli Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell ‘Emilia Romagna did not disappoint with intense battles and bitter crashes.
Thirty minutes before the start of the race, Fernando Alonso spun on his way to the grid which gave him some damage to his front wing. Aston Martin was again unlucky when Lance Stroll’s car sprung a rear-right brake fire as he made his way to the grid. The team changed his and team mate Sebastian Vettel’s brakes. Once again, Sebastian Vettel had challenges before starting. Since he was not ready to go at the five minute mark, he started the race from pit lane. Unfortunately, he would pull into the pits on the last lap due to gearbox issues.
Also before the race, the rain had fallen, which meant drivers on intermediate and wet tires. As the lights went out Verstappen shot off the line into first. It was a great start, and it was nice to see the Red Bull come cleaning off the start.
Lap 2 contained the first safety car of the race as Nicholas Latifi ended up in the wall just outside of turn 14 after touching with Mazepin. It was heartbreaking to see especially because he had just rejoined the track after a spin at Aqua Minerale. So far, Latifi has not finished a race.
Also under the safety car, Mick Schumacher spun and went gently into the wall at pit exit which saw him lose his front wing and a lot of time. The last incident under this safety car was when Perez went onto the gravel and lost two place, but then regained them. He was hit with a ten second time penalty for “overtaking under the safety car”. He finished the race in a disappointing 12th.
Verstappen was the first of the front runners to switch to slick tires on lap 27, which brought a wave of people into the pits on the next few laps.
On lap 31, Lewis Hamilton made a rare mistake which saw him slid onto the gravel at Tosa which gave him damage to his front wing. He managed to keep the engine running and gently reverse out, however, he dropped to eighth.
On that same lap was a brutal crash between Bottas and Russell at Tamburello. There was a quick investigation but it appeared that both drivers were a little bit to blame, so no penalties were handed out. It seems that Bottas had veered a little bit to the right, which Russell has lost control of two of his tires while on the wet grass. The crash resulted in a red flag so the barriers could be repaired and the debris cleaned up.
The race finished with Verstappen taking the checkered flag, with Hamilton in second and Lando Norris completing the podium. It was incredibly driving from all three podium finishers, and with the two brits on the podium, it equaled number 700 for British racers finishing in the podium places.
Once again, I know I have missed some things, but boring my readers is much worse so we will end the post here. Once again, a thrilling race and we will be back in two weeks time for the Portuguese Grand Prix!
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