A dominant display from Max Verstappen earns him the victory at the 2021 F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

The Dutchman was able to pull a substantial gap from the restart that saw him get his 11th career victory. A fantastic comeback from Lewis Hamilton earned him second place ahead of the McLaren of Lando Norris.

The Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz finished in fourth and fifth with the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo in sixth. Lance Stroll finished seventh for Aston Martin with Pierre Gasly in eighth, Kimi Raikkonen in ninth and Esteban Ocon in tenth.

Fernando Alonso narrowly missed out on the points as the Spaniard finished P11 as Sergio Perez had a horrid time as the Red Bull finished P12.

Yuki Tsunoda in P13, Antonio Giovinazzi in P14, Mick Schumacher in P15 and Nikita Mazepin was the final runner in P16.

Nicholas Latifi, George Russell, Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel were the four drivers that were unable to finish the race with Vettel retiring after a gearbox issue on the final lap.

Starting Grid

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Lewis Hamilton claimed his 99th career pole position ahead of Red Bull pairing of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen as the top three were separated by under a tenth.

Charles Leclerc claimed fourth ahead of Pierre Gasly while Daniel Ricciardo beat Lando Norris after the Brit’s fastest lap time was deleted due to track limit infringements.

Valtteri Bottas had a dreadful day in eighth ahead of an impressive Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll who rounded out the top 10. Carlos Sainz will have a free tyre choice for the race after he qualified in 11th with George Russell alongside the Spaniard in 12th.

Sebastian Vettel qualified in 13th but will start from the pit lane with the excellent Nicholas Latifi in 14th and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso in 15th. Kimi Raikkonen qualified in 16th, Antonio Giovinazzi in 17th, Mick Schumacher in 18th, Nikita Mazepin in 19th and Yuki Tsunoda will start at the back of the grid after he crashed out in Q1.

As It Happened

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Verstappen overtook Hamilton as the Brit came together with the Red Bull as he lost some bodywork on his Mercedes.

After the first lap, the Safety Car was brought out due to Latifi making contact with Mazepin. The Canadian subsequently spun and crashed out of the race.

Schumacher then spun after he tried to warm his tyres up and lost his front wing due to hitting the barrier.

On lap seven, we returned to green light racing as Verstappen led away from Hamilton with Leclerc moving up to third.

Gasly, Norris, Sainz, Stroll and Bottas fought for position down the start/finish straight as the five drivers squabbled for position.

On the next lap, Norris and Sainz were able to move past Gasly as the Frenchman dropped down the order from fifth at the start to eighth.

Gasly continued to fall down the order as his wet tyres were no match to Stroll’s intermediates as the Canadian moved up to eighth.

Moments later, Bottas moved ahead of the AlphaTauri as Perez was handed a 10 second time penalty after overtaking under the Safety Car.

Russell, Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, Tsunoda and Vettel would move ahead of Gasly not long after as he dropped down to 15th in the matter of a few laps.

The AlphaTauri crew made the decision to pit the Frenchman onto the intermediate tyre as he fell all the way to the back of the grid.

Vettel was the first driver onto the slick tyres but the German was given a 10 second stop/go penalty for not getting his tyres fitted on five minutes before the start of the race.

Sainz moved ahead of Ricciardo into the first chicane as the Spaniard moved his Ferrari into sixth place.

On lap 28, Verstappen was the first to blink as Hamilton was released into the race lead, but that lead was short-lived as the Dutchman moved ahead once more after the Brit pitted for slicks.

At the halfway point, Verstappen led away from Leclerc and Norris in third. Perez in fourth, Sainz in fifth, Ricciardo in sixth, Stroll in seventh, Raikkonen in eighth, Hamilton in ninth and Tsunoda rounded out the top 10.

Russell and Bottas crashed out of the race as the Williams tried to overtake the Mercedes round the outside down the start/finish straight.

The race was red-flagged as the stewards needed to clear up the wreckage of the collision between Bottas and Russell.

At the restart, Verstappen led the pack as Norris made his way ahead of Leclerc into second. Tsunoda spun off the track and had his work undone as he fell down to 15th.

Perez overcooked it into the Villeneuve chicane and the Mexican dropped all the way down to 14th from fourth.

Hamilton moved ahead of Stroll and Ricciardo into fifth place as the Brit looked like a man possessed and started his charge back to the podium.

The seven-time world champion then moved ahead of Sainz into the first chicane with the Brit into fourth place.

With 10 laps to go, Verstappen had a huge advantage ahead of Norris and Leclerc in third. Hamilton was fourth, Sainz in fifth, Ricciardo in sixth, Stroll in seventh, Gasly in eighth, Raikkonen in ninth and Ocon in tenth.

The Mercedes of Hamilton managed to make his way past Leclerc and Norris in the dying moments of the race and was able to move his car into second about 20 seconds behind eventual race winner Verstappen.