F1: How Red Bull and Max Verstappen surprised McLaren at Imola GP
When Max Verstappen took only his second win of this Formula One season at Imola, the overwhelming consensus was that the Red Bull car had finally picked up some pace along the way to the Italian GP. On Sunday, Verstappen brilliantly overtook McLaren's Oscar Piastri in the first corner of the first lap and then never relinquished his hold on the race.
Verstappen has been plagued with a slower car this season, one that had been slower than the McLaren's until Imola. In Italy, the Red Bull clearly had the pace to keep in front, signalling that their updates to the car was starting to show promise.
'At all times, Max, he had the pace,' the Red Bull team principal Cristian Horner said. 'He was able to respond. It never felt that we were under pressure from behind. I think we had the pace to cover whatever they could throw at us.
'Definitely we've managed to put some performance on the car and get it into a better window,' said Horner. 'Since Brazil last year, which was a wet race, that's the first time I can remember in a long time we've had the pace to really pull away and out-deg the McLaren. That's very encouraging.'
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella agreed with Horner's assessment that the Red Bull had picked up pace and was now seriously challenging on the front against the McLaren. Verstappen's win in Japan came in conditions where overtaking was extremely tough and his pole position provided enough to win him the race. At Italy though, it was his pace and the minimal tyre degradation that helped in the win.
'We were a little surprised to be honest here by the pace of Red Bull,' he said. 'The race was very much decided by the swap of positions between Oscar and Max in corner one. After that we tried to chase him but effectively we didn't have enough race pace today to be able to beat Max.'
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