Max Verstappen cruised to his second victory of 2022, after dominating the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from start to finish. Team-mate Sergio Pérez crossed the line in second to secure Oracle Red Bull Racing’s first one-two finish since 2016.
It was a perfect afternoon in the changing conditions for Verstappen, who after making an excellent start from pole never looked in doubt of taking his second win of the season. Victory at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit rounded off the ultimate weekend for the Dutchman, after taking pole, winning the race and the Sprint race and taking the fastest lap.
It was even sweeter for the reigning World Champion after title-rival Charles Leclerc span late on, dropping many places in the process.
Verstappen couldn’t believe how amazing the weekend was and is hopeful the team can keep pushing in the right direction.
“To have a weekend like this for both of us with a one-two for the Team is just incredible. It was a very lovely Sunday! Everything today was well executed, coming into the weekend I didn’t expect it to be like this. It was more or less a perfect weekend, everything went well for us and we’ll of course enjoy today. I scored the maximum amount of points this weekend and we can be really proud of that as a Team, it’s a great boost.
“Today was all about judging the conditions, making the right calls and staying very focused and I think we did that very well. We need to keep focused and we know that at the next race we need to be up there again and keep this going.”
“The race was pretty intense” – Sergio Pérez
Sergio Pérez did brilliantly all race to hold position from Leclerc after overtaking him on the opening lap, the Scuderia Ferrari driver remained hot on the Mexican’s heels all race before pushing too hard and spinning into the wall.
Pérez had been overtaken by Leclerc after messing up his out-lap having changed from the Intermediates to the Mediums, the Mexican corrected his error though and found his way back past the Monegasque driver whilst Leclerc was heating up his tyres.
Pérez was put under late pressure from Leclerc though, before the Ferrari driver span at Turn Fifteen bringing relief to the Red Bull crew. Pérez’ second place finish saw the team claim their first one-two since 2016!
Pérez thoroughly enjoyed the race and especially his battle with Leclerc, after what has been a tough start to the season for the Mexican.
“It was a tough race but an enjoyable one. Rule number one in these conditions is to finish. It was difficult because in these conditions it is easy to make a mistake and put a foot wrong but we managed a clean race and kept out of trouble, which was pretty important. I got a great start and the restart was good too, then I think the Team did a great job with strategy out there. On the intermediates I was really thinking to save the tyres but the degradation was high and Charles was really fast towards the end of that stint so I was happy to just keep him behind.
“The race was pretty intense with Charles, he was always within an undercut range and when we thought we had him under control he boxed and made things a lot harder for both of us. We were both pushing with cold tyres and, in fairness to Charles, it was easy to make mistakes. We have had such a difficult start to the season with reliability concerns and DNFs, so it was really important we brought it home today – it is a great result for the Team.”
