Race Highlights | 2022 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

It's lights out away we go and unlike yesterday Verstappen gets away well this time as does Sergio Pérez. Leclerc a little slower getting off the line and he's already been passed by Sergio Pérez. Verstappen leads into the first corner ahead of Pérez on the inside. Lando Norris gets third place ahead of Charles Leclerc. Bad start from him. Daniel Ricciardo hits Carlos Sainz and Ferrari is spun round and Ricciardo manages to keep going. Oh no! Carlos Sainz for the second race in a row. Second Grand Prix in a row. Looks like his afternoon has been ending way earlier than he would have wanted. Sainz going the long way around. Where's Ricciardo going to be able to go? Ricciardo just moved over to the right. There was space and then Ricciardo inches over to the right. That's when the contact happens. Lewis Hamilton getting past Fernando Alonso. You can see there's a bit of a hole there already and there it goes. But it was from damage. That must have been on the first lap or at the restart. But there's Lewis picking the right way around, of course. The grip's on the outside off the rubber, but... How bad is the damage? Quite bad. Quite bad. Second DNF of the season then for Fernando Alonso. So Lando Norris, can he defend against Charles Leclerc? He's done a very nice job of it so far. Leclerc looks an awful lot closer this time and under braking. Charles Leclerc goes for it. Into the chicane. That'll please the Tifosi. You can hear the roars all the way to Maranello. 56 miles away. Leclerc's up into the podium places. Russell this time is going to go for it. And he's side by side with Kevin Magnussen. And he's ahead of Kevin Magnussen. And at the third time, I'm asking. He gets into the chicane ahead, but he makes a bit of a mess of it. Can he get back out in front? We're on board with the Haas who regains that fifth place. Behind them, Valtteri Bottas is just lurking and lying in wait. 17 years ago today, Fernando Alonso won. And that we saw as Russell now into the Variante Alta. Makes the move. Kevin Magnussen might not have been expecting it there. But this time around, Russell's made the move. And he's made it stick too. And, Lando, weather update for you. There's possibly some light Class 0 to 1 rain within the next 30 minutes. It might push people to try and extend this. As across the grass goes Sebastian Vettel. And here comes Valtteri Bottas. Wheel to wheel with Kevin Magnussen. Down into Rivazza. Tricky braking zone. Bottas, I think, has managed to get the car stopped and slowed down enough to snatch sixth place ahead of Kevin Magnussen. Lovely move. If that was Red Bull, I'd call Perez first. And they are. Perez does come in for Red Bull. Max Verstappen stays out on the track. Charles Leclerc has carried on. And Mercedes are going to make a tyre change too. So Verstappen into the pits and out again. Leclerc into the pits and out again. Sergio Perez. He's not had the best of laps here, because Charles Leclerc has now got ahead of Sergio Perez. So whatever was going on in the pits distracted our attention a bit. Because out on track, Perez was starting to struggle. But his tyres are now a lot more warmed up than Charles Leclerc's. And Leclerc moves over to the right-hand side to try and block off Perez. Perez eventually does find a bit of space to squeeze past and retake that position. This is the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton pitting. Was this an unsafe release? Five-second time penalty for Esteban Ocon. Here goes Yuki Tsunoda on Kevin Magnussen. And Yuki Tsunoda, nothing wrong with his power unit there whatsoever, is up into eighth place, where, of course, he finished in Bahrain in the season opener. Vettel is going to have to fend off Yuki Tsunoda. We did say that Tsunoda has the pace to chase down that Aston Martin. Gaps behind them. Oh! Charles Leclerc goes into the barrier at the Variante Alta. Now, he's kept the car going. He's kept everything running. One Ferrari already out, and another Ferrari potentially out, because I think he's got damage to his front wing. Crofty, look how much he goes to the right-hand side, beaches it on this big sausage kerb. Why is he trying to do that? Because he wants to get the DRS down at Revazza, but you can see the car would not handle it. Bounced, couldn't correct it. And then, obviously, onto the second part. He's very lucky that he managed to get that car out the wall, but he is going to be one unhappy boy when he leaves this track tonight. As out into the race now comes Charles Leclerc, behind Yuki Tsunoda and Sebastian Vettel. And Tsunoda's making the move on Vettel. Tried it the previous lap, didn't get it done. Has got it done now. If he can't get past Kevin Magnussen, well, that's just going to compound his misery for the rest of this afternoon. He has got much better speed than Magnussen, fresher tyres than Magnussen, and does manage to get past the Haas. So he's now up into eighth, and it's Sebastian Vettel further up the road that's his next target. Sebastian Vettel has been passed already for seventh place. Charles Leclerc is going to make it another pass for seventh place against Sebastian Vettel. And that was an easier move than Charles Leclerc could have hoped for. Max Verstappen, 14 seconds out in front. Charles Leclerc was thinking about second place at one stage, and has just made the move on Yuki Tsunoda into sixth place after that late crash at the Valiante Alta. This has been a very comfortable win indeed for the defending world champion, the reigning world champion. He's coped with the rain here this weekend. Max Verstappen comes to the line, wins the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix by some distance. And it's a distance from his teammate, Sergio Perez, as Red Bull come to Ferrari's backyard and make it a one-two. If it was the Reds against the Blues here today, the Blues are very much with the Reds, and the Blues are triumphing. Very impressive. And Lando Norris on the podium. Superb. That will motivate everyone at McLaren. Great drive, Max. Well done. That was a very lovely Sunday. Well done, mate. That's maximum points. Maximum points. Sprint race, race, fastest lap. Well done. Great job. The crowd, the 64,000 fans, packed the banks and the grandstands hoping to see victory for the Reds. Well, they kind of did, but it was the Red Bulls who reigned supreme in the rain in Emilia-Romagna.