Christian Horner: "It was a race of two halves for us today. The first half was really strong and we built a good buffer, but the second half Lando started to catch us very quickly. Max couldn't afford to put a millimetre wrong with track limits and the pressure of Lando behind, so a great job by Max. It's very satisfying to win a race like that when you have been pushed so hard. After qualifying, we ran the reverse strategy for Checo and the result was probably the best we could've got in a straight race like we had with no safety cars. McLaren and Ferrari were very quick and it's going to be a really tight fight with both teams, especially as the cars are converging which is what naturally happens when you have stable rules. Overall, it was a weekend to remember in Imola and the whole team is looking forward to going again next weekend in Monte Carlo."
Lewis Hamilton finished P6 with George Russell P7 in Sunday's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Both drivers started on the Medium compound tyre, George lining up P6 with Lewis P8.
Lewis made immediate progress passing Tsunoda for P7, with our duo running line astern and with similar pace to the cars ahead for the opening 20 laps.
George began to see his Medium tyres dropping off and was the first of the top-10 to stop, switching to the Hard tyre on lap 21. Lewis meanwhile extended his opening stint and, after stopping for the Hard tyre on lap 27, was able to run a one-stop race to the end.
Having pitted earlier than others, the team had some concerns over George's Hard tyres making it to the end. He therefore made a precautionary stop for the used Medium tyre, dropping behind his team-mate, but then utilised it to take the fastest lap of the race point.
Toto Wolff, Team Principal & CEO: It's not possible to see it in terms of the result, but we have taken a small step forward this weekend. Our closest competitors have also done so recently, but we have closed the gap to the front a little. We still have a lot of work to do and of course, we are all frustrated finishing P6 and P7. There is more to come though, and it is all about making incremental gains. These are what we need to keep delivering if we are to get ourselves in the fight with the three teams ahead of us.
With George's second stop, our wear forecasts showed that he may struggle to make it last to the end of the race on the Hard tyre. We had the opportunity to pit and get out ahead of Perez, and therefore opted to stop him. That also enabled us to go for the fastest lap point. It cost George a place to Lewis but ultimately the team was able to score an additional point.
Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: It's clear we have made progress this weekend, but our nearest competitors are also pushing hard. The race today confirmed that we need to continue to make these gains to be in the fight with the top-three teams. We are continuing to work on that, with the factory flat out on development. We will look to continue to bring updates to subsequent races.
Today, the Grand Prix didn't throw us any opportunities. There were no Virtual Safety Cars or Safety Cars, so as much as P6 and P7 is frustrating, it is what our pace deserved. We're not lacking any determination or effort to improve, and over the last few weeks it has been encouraging to see the efforts that every team member has put into the drive to get back to the front.
Scuderia Ferrari HP came away from the Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell'Emilia-Romagna with a third place for Charles Leclerc - a seventh podium in as many races for the team this season - and a fifth for Carlos Sainz. There were positives to take away from the event over and above the race result itself because over 63 laps of Imola, all the hard work in Maranello to fine tune the updates package on the SF-24 was clear to see. It worked as expected and the whole team put in a lot of effort to get everything out of the car. This intense work on all fronts meant the drivers were even more competitive in the race, as can be seen from the gap between Leclerc and the race winner Max Verstappen and gives the team hope for the rest of the season. With such small gaps, the team now has to improve its qualifying performance because it was clear today that grid position had a profound effect on the final result. And that will be even more the case next week in Monaco.
Almost predictably, the top three finished in the order in which they started. When the lights went out, Verstappen managed to fend off Lando Norris, Charles, Carlos and Oscar Piastri. The order remained unchanged up to the first run of pit stops, which Piastri initiated on lap 24. Carlos stayed out deciding it would be difficult to defend from the undercut from the Australian and that the McLaren driver would have to deal with traffic. Sainz pitted on lap 27 when his Mediums started to go off and he had to defend from the Mercedes duo, but he was unable to stay ahead of the McLaren and had to settle for fifth. The gaps between the first three were very small throughout the second part of the race. Charles managed to close on Norris at the start of his stint on the Hard, but with such small differences between car performance at Imola, getting past was impossible. The Monegasque could match Verstappen's pace and so the gap to the Dutchman remained practically the same as it was at the pit stops and then, towards the end, Norris pushed on more as he tried to fight for the win. Charles finished just under eight seconds behind the winner, while Carlos had a solitary time of it in the second part, able to match Piastri's pace on the Hard, but not to pass him and so he had to settle for fifth.
Charles' third place brought him enough points to get ahead of Sergio Perez to go second in the standings, behind the leader Verstappen. Scuderia Ferrari HP also confirmed its second place in pursuit of Red Bull in the Constructors.' In five days' time, the action resumes in Monaco for Charles Leclerc's home race, where the small matter of winning around the streets of Monte Carlo is something he is keen to deal with as soon as possible.
Fred Vasseur: First of all I would like to thank all the tifosi as it was very special to see them under the podium after the race. They brought us a lot of energy this week. Overall, it was a good weekend beyond the performance on track. Today we brought home the best result we could, as it is very difficult to overtake here. When we were pushing we were able to close the gap, but we had to be careful about overheating the tyres and we did not have enough pace difference to overtake.
Unfortunately, the outcome of the Grand Prix was very much connected to yesterday's qualifying and we need to do a better job in the next races as we can now see that our competitiveness in the race itself has really improved. I think today's race was also a very good advert for Formula 1 as we saw three teams in seven seconds after more than 60 laps, which means the gaps are less than one tenth per lap.
We are definitely on the pace now and we can fight for the top spot, even if we still need to make a small step forward.
Andrea Stella, Team Principal: "A positive day at Imola and the first time in 2024 McLaren have emerged as the highest-scoring team. P4 for Oscar came from good strategy and good pace, allowing him to gain a place on a day when it was not easy to. P2 for Lando was a very strong result. It was a surprise to be in contention for the victory at the end of the race. It came about as a consequence of how sensitive the tyres were today. In the first stint, Max did a better job of managing the Medium and after the stops, Lando did a very good job of managing the Hard, resisting the temptation to overdo it when Leclerc was catching up. It paid off at the end with strong pace and being in the hunt for the victory.
"Everyone at McLaren has worked very hard to make these results possible, and they have my thanks for the upgrades that have arrived over the last few weeks, but also for the commitment, the hard work, and the quality of that work. We need to keep improving the car. If we can do that, we're going to be in a good position for the future."
Mike Krack, Team Principal: "We leave Imola with two important points following a strong drive by Lance and excellent team strategy. Lance made his one-stop race work with a long first stint, while Fernando's early pit stop on lap eight helped draw several cars in for early stops. Lance was then able to make strong overtakes into Turn 1 on Hülkenberg and Tsunoda to secure P9. It was not easy to overtake, so it was great to watch Lance making those moves. It was always going to be difficult for Fernando to progress to the points after the difficult Qualifying, but he played the team game perfectly. The Imola weekend showed that we are still not competitive enough. Our focus is on extracting the full potential of the AMR24 for the races to come, starting next week in Monaco."
Bruno Famin, Team Principal: "It was a difficult race for the team in Imola today. We lacked pace and the alternative strategy we attempted with Pierre did not work as there were no incidents on track. The leaders of the race were very fast today and we were caught early on with blue flags, which cost us additional time. We need to focus on our own performance and analyse the data to understand our race pace deficit. We can only control the areas we have in our hands. Next week we return to the legendary Monaco. It's a race with fond memories for the team from last year and we look forward to racing there again with a resilient and motivated attitude aiming for a good result."
Sven Smeets, Sporting Director: Not the race result we wanted today. Alex's race was over after a problem in his first pitstop with the right front wheel. After he served the penalty, we used the rest of his race as a learning for next year and decided to retire him before the end of the race.
Logan's stint on the Hard tyre was difficult as he was in a DRS train most of the time. After receiving a lot of blue flags, he found some pace at the end of the race in clean air, and managed to overtake Bottas.
We will shift our focus immediately to Monaco now and on taking weight out of the car in the upcoming races.
Jody Egginton (Technical Director): "It's nice to come away with a point from Yuki but there's also a slight feeling of frustration as we had the pace to possibly be further up the road at the end of the race. However, we lost places with both cars off the start and that pushed us into making an earlier-than-planned stop to try and recover, meaning we had to go longer than we wanted on the second set of tyres. That opened up the opportunity for Stroll to go long with less traffic and he took good advantage of this. On the positive side, the car and recent updates worked well here and it's been a fantastic effort from everyone at the factory supplying new parts, and it was good to see so many of them here with us, celebrating in the grandstands after all their hard work."
Laurent Mekies (Team Principal): "With just 15 kilometres separating our Faenza factory from the Imola circuit, this was always going to be a special event for us; our first home race under the Visa Cash App RB banner. It was great to have so many employees from the factory here at the track, creating a sort of "Blue Army" in a special VCARB grandstand and rotating our VIP passes to get as many of them as possible into the paddock. This was our way of thanking everyone in Faenza, Bicester and at Honda for their hard work, which has been giving us good results, to put us once again at the top of the midfield here in Imola. Even if today's race leaves us a little bit disappointed, as a better start from both Yuki and Daniel would have probably created a better scenario for us, a point is a point and there are many positives to take away from the weekend. Our qualifying performance proves that the upgrades we implemented in Miami are definitely bringing us performance to go on fighting for sixth position in the Championship. And now we carry that momentum forward to face the unique challenge of Monaco. Daniel has been on the podium there no fewer than four times, including a win, and Yuki is currently in great form, so we will be pushing for another strong performance from the whole team."
Stake F1 Team KICK Sauber leaves the first race of the European calendar with no points to its name: leveraging different strategies, Valtteri Bottas pitted early, switching to the hard compound tyres, whereas Zhou Guanyu opted for a longer stint on hard tyres before switching to a new set of mediums. On a track where overtaking is difficult and with a long pitlane, Zhou was able to gain positions, ultimately finishing P15, while Valtteri, after running in P12, suffered the tyres' degradation in the closing stages, reaching the chequered flag in P18.
The team, both trackside and in Hinwil, will continue to work hard to be in the fight for points at the historic circuit of Monte Carlo next weekend.
Alessandro Alunni Bravi, Team Representative: "We knew that, starting from P16 and P17, we needed some special circumstances playing in our favour to be in the fight for points. However, what we saw today was a clean race, without any full or virtual safety car; we tried a different strategy for both cars but remained in a DRS train for most of the race. We had decent pace on both compounds, especially compared with our direct competitors, but it was not enough to gain further positions. Zhou drove an aggressive race, starting on the hard tyres. Unfortunately, he had a moment with Esteban [Ocon] where he was pushed off the track and therefore lost the position. With Valtteri, we tried to extend the second stint, on the hard compound, and therefore pitted him early - unfortunately, the end of the race was difficult for him in terms of traction. The field is very tight, and we have seen that qualifying is the real race for us: any position we can gain on the starting grid can allow us to have a different Sunday. The target for the team is to find more pace in the car over the next few races, starting in Monaco. While today was the maximum we could have done, our analysis is that we need to improve - as quickly as possible."
MoneyGram Haas F1 Team finished with Nico Hulkenberg 11th, and Kevin Magnussen 12th, at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Round 7 of the 2024 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, held Sunday at Imola.
Hulkenberg started from 10th place on Pirelli P Zero Yellow medium tires and gained two positions on the opening lap, overtaking the RB pair of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo. Hulkenberg came in on lap 13 for White hard tires but was undercut by Tsunoda, and later relinquished further positions to the offset and recovering Red Bull of Sergio Perez, before being passed by Aston Martin's Lance Stroll to drop out of the top 10 runners. Hulkenberg took the checkered flag just shy of the points in 11th place.
Magnussen took the start from 18th on the grid, also on medium tires, and slotted into 14th during the early stages of the race. Magnussen ran a long first stint before coming in on lap 37 for hards, emerging on-track in 17th place. Magnussen used the fresher tires to good effect to carve his way through the midfield contingent, and followed Hulkenberg home by finishing in 12th spot, 1.1 seconds behind his teammate. Magnussen gained six places, the biggest mover in the race.
Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "Again, slightly mixed feelings. I think Kevin drove a really great race, a good, clean race, especially after Miami, and I think he delivered. I think he would've had a decent chance of scoring points in P10 if it wasn't for the timing of his pit stop. The pit stop itself wasn't great but we just took too much risk delaying a stop as late as that, so that's frustrating. The positive thing here is Kevin drove very well, he deserved to score points.
"It was a bit tricky for Nico as he was fighting against two RB's which is our main competitor. He drove a good race but pitting that early in terms of hard tire degradation wasn't easy, so in hindsight we probably would've done something different there. All in all, it's very positive that we've done seven races and at every single race we're there or there abouts on the edge of scoring points, but there is no margin. I'm encouraged by this development and in Monaco we're looking forward to having another crack at it."
Another victory for Max Verstappen, but Lando Norris came very close to repeating his Miami win from a fortnight ago: between qualifying and the race, the gap between the Red Bull driver and his McLaren rival was only 816 thousandths of a second (91 in qualifying and 725 in the race). Ferrari's Charles Leclerc made it to the third step of the podium, the trio covered by less than eight seconds or 7"916 to be precise.
This was win number 59 for Verstappen, his third in a row at Imola (2021, 2022 and 2024) equalling Michael Schumacher's achievement from 2002 to 2004. It was Red Bull's 118th win.
15 drivers lined up for the start on the Medium tyre. Three, Perez, Sargeant and Zhou, opted for the Hard, while Alonso, starting from pit lane and Gasly, took a gamble on the Soft. As widely predicted it was a one-stop race, with Medium and Hard the favourite choices. Starting on the Softs simply did not pay off, both the above mentioned drivers having to make an additional stop. With three laps to go, Aston Martin's Spanish driver fitted another set of Softs, probably with the aim of setting the fastest race lap, but this actually went to George Russell who also made an extra stop on lap 52 with this in mind, thus bringing Mercedes the extra point. The prize for the longest stint of all goes to Valtteri Bottas (Sauber) who is no stranger to this exercise. He completed 54 of his 62 laps on the C3, while Kevin Magnussen (Haas) and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) topped the laps on the C4, extending the first stint to lap 37.
Mario Isola: "A very close race, for the most part without any particularly exciting moments, but it livened up towards the end as Norris closed on Verstappen. On an old style track like Imola, overtaking has always been difficult and this year was no exception. A strategy based on a single stop was, as predicted, the quickest and was adopted by the majority, with the first stint run on the Medium and the second with the Hard. Both compounds worked quite well despite the fact that, especially at the front of the field, the drivers pushed practically all race long, with track temperatures oscillating between 43 and 50 °C, even if there were a few clouds overhead.
"The predicted pit stop window proved to be accurate: in fact, those who stopped very early then found themselves struggling towards the end. Actually, degradation was not very high because there were few signs of graining.
"Finally, I must congratulate the wonderful crowd at Imola who were as passionate as ever, once again putting on a great show in the grandstands which I'm sure the drivers and teams enjoyed."
