Max wins at Imola, ends Piastri’s run

Max Verstappen took a dominant victory at Imola on Sunday to celebrate Red Bull’s 400th grand prix and end Formula One leader Oscar Piastri’s run of three wins in a row for McLaren.

Australian Piastri started on pole and finished third, overtaken by teammate Lando Norris on fresher tyres seven laps from the end, with his championship lead cut from 16 points to 13 after seven rounds.

The victory was the 65th of Verstappen’s career, second of the season and the four-time world champion’s fourth in a row at the Italian circuit near Bologna after wins in 2021, 2022 and 2024. There was no race in 2023 due to flooding.

“The start itself wasn’t particularly great but I was still on the outside line, the normal line, so I was like ‘well I’m going to try and send it around the outside’ and it worked really well,” said the Dutch driver.

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