Last Sunday’s race at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix ended with a crushing Grand Chelem by Max Verstappen, the second of his career in Formula 1. The Dutch driver passed over all his rivals and, especially, the one who was his biggest enemy in the fight for the 2021 season title, Lewis Hamilton.
The reigning world champion dominated the fourth round of the year from start to finish, while the Englishman could only finish 13th, stuck in traffic and unable to overtake a car that was initially slower, the AlphaTauri from Pierre Gasley.
The Briton was unable to overtake the Frenchman at Imola, citing the problems to the W13 ‘s continued porpoising and lack of top speed, but teammate George Russell finished fourth.
Halfway through the race, Verstappen reached Hamilton’s rear wing ready to lap the seven-time world champion and on the finish straight, the Mercedes driver was forced to give way to the race leader.
Unsurprisingly, the topic came up at the post-GP press conference, with Verstappen narrating how things went: “The Mercedes have been slow all year, so I don’t have much to be happy about.”
“It was a great weekend for us, and we needed it, but we didn’t expect to be so successful,” explained the Red Bull driver. “It’s an incredible result, not only did we do a double, but we got the maximum points for the fastest lap.”
“The team didn’t make a single mistake, it was a very positive Grand Prix for us,” said the Dutchman, who managed to move into second place in the overall drivers’ standings, on the lookout for Charles Leclerc.
