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McLaren was completely caught out by Max Verstappen’s surprise at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix to seal his second victory of the year and serve as a reminder that he cannot be ruled out of this year’s Formula 1 championship match.
The surprise came in two ways: firstly, by the spectacular move by Oscar Piastri of McLaren to take the Red Bull driver’s lead at the first corner, and then by Verstappen’s impressive pace once outside in front.
Verstappen also led the opening 20 laps of the race in Miami, but he was quickly snagged by the McLarens of Lando Norris and Piastri before being abandoned for the long run.
This is different.
Verstappen once had the advantage of holding the lead in the race. And while McLaren were left to regret some of the “wrong calls” made during the race, Piastri claimed they were aware that none of them would have affected the outcome.
In light of how the race turned out, with first a virtual safety car followed by an actual one, Piastri had to choose to pit early for fresh tyres. And Piastri and Norris came in third and third, which is the reverse championship order in which the season’s protagonists came in.
Norris remarked, “It was the best result I believed we could actually achieve today.” I probably didn’t anticipate the Red Bull to be as quick as they did.
the moment that determined the race’s outcome
But that’s first. It was delicious.
Verstappen actually had lost ground on the first corner, with Piastri seemingly still in the lead after Mercedes’ George Russell edged ahead on his inside.
However, Piastri braked earlier than he should have done in the middle of the track, which was all Verstappen needed.
He “sent it” with complete devotion and pissed off Piastri, a typically unaware and instinctive racer himself.
The Australian responded, “Yeah.” “I thought Max made a wise decision, and I thought it was pretty under control.” So, I’ll be clear on that when I do next.
In retrospect, “definitely would have done something different.” Probably ten meters later, I would have braked. Yes . That is it. Live and discover.
“But I wasn’t overly worried about not being in the lead,” I said at that time. But then, I realized our pace wasn’t as fast as I had anticipated.
Verstappen was even impressed by the move.
He said, “I was a little backwards.” “Basically in P3 at the time before braking. I had to travel a long way, of course, but I was on the typical braking path.
Even on a track where overtaking is as notoriously challenging as Imola, it might not have mattered if McLaren had shown the pace advantage they had in Miami, Bahrain, China, or Australia.
But that was not their choice. Verstappen’s grip on the pitch was initially strong until Piastri sensed his tyres disintegrating, so McLaren made the decision to pit him.
The tyres went through a phase where they felt like they were going off before coming back on the same day. However, it only made a change, and McLaren came in second and third.
Verstappen believed that his improved form could be explained by two different factors. Some upgrades that Red Bull had provided had been successful. However, the track itself was present.
As with his previous success this year, Verstappen’s Jeddah, where he squared off against Piastri, “has quite a few high-speed corners, which I think our car likes”.
It’s very track specific, he continued. High-speed tracks and high-speed corners have been the hallmarks of every other time we have been really competitive.
“We still have work to do,” the team said. “I do believe it was a very positive weekend.”
“Feb. 9 was still very challenging, but I believe we had a better setup for Saturday.” And I just hope that we can use that a little more frequently because it undoubtedly opened up more space for the car.
Norris remarked, “The high-speed corners have been where we’ve been going the entire season.” Therefore, we must work in that field, which may have caused some of our pain this weekend.
We’ve been saying “we have to keep working hard,” we said right away. Max has repeatedly outqualified us, and their pace only increased today to Sunday.
What might follow?
Seven races in, and a pattern is emerging. The Red Bull and McLaren are rivals on a high-speed track. The McLaren has a clear advantage over competitors in a different speed range, though.
The pendulum may continue to swing therefore. The pace of Monaco is what it is this weekend. McLaren should win.
Verstappen once said, “Montemarle is, of course, very different. Let’s see how we will perform there, then. You may recall that our last year was very challenging. Because there is, of course, a lot of low speed, I don’t anticipate it to be much easier this time around.
The Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya is full of long, medium, and high-speed corners on the weekend in Spain. territory for Red Bulls. Except for the high levels of tyre degradation, which should benefit McLaren.
However, overall, McLaren still favors the math and the trend.
Because either team can win on the tracks where the cars are fairly evenly distributed. Verstappen was defeated, for instance, in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, there are tracks that McLaren are simply better at. Red Bull will need McLaren to be a failure in their current form to succeed.
There aren’t, at least so far, any tracks where the Red Bull is dominant in the same way that the McLaren has been at about half the events so far.
Although Piastri is by nature a down-to-earth person who doesn’t let anything obstruct his sang-froid, he may have been considering this when he summed up his feelings in third place.
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