Formula 1 was contesting the first sprint race of the 2022 season after the experiments of last season, where they concluded that they needed to distribute more points.
That caused the drivers to go on the attack early on at Imola, but they had to be cautious as any incident would see them start from the back of the grid in Sunday’s feature race.
However, Max Verstappen risked everything he had in the closing laps to take victory in this session on Saturday, passing Charles Leclerc on the main straight after several laps of pursuit.
Watch Verstappen’s winning overtake on Leclerc in the F1 sprint race at Imola
A few kilometers to see the checkered flag, the Dutchman chose the outside of the first corner on arrival at Tamburello and overtook the Monegasque’s Ferrari, which had been running out of tires due to degradation problems.
In this way, the Red Bull driver adds eight more points in the general classification to get a total of 33, while the current leader of the championship collects another 7 units that give him more advantage over his teammate, Carlos Sainz, who was 4th after a great comeback from the middle of the grid.
This sprint race decided the positions for Sunday’s test, which will distribute, as usual, the 25 points for the winner, who will have to complete the 63 laps of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix before the rest of the rivals.
Therefore, the defending world champion will start from the first place, and will try to defend himself from the attacks of Charles Leclerc. However, both will have to watch their rear-view mirrors, because Sergio Pérez and Carlos Sainz want to continue climbing positions after the problems that they were dragging from the classification, and they will start from 3rd and 4th place.
