Rate The Race and Driver of The weekend

Race 2, Emillia Romagnia GP, Imola, Italy 2022

Mean Reader Score:6.14   Ranked 4/4 so far this season.

This being only the third race at Imola since the tragedy of 1994, we don’t have many years to compare this mark to. Scoring 6.14 this is lower than last year’s mark of 8.42 and 2020’s 7.16.

This race was scored as the worst of the season so far. (Not completely sure I agree with that but the numbers are what they are, so that’s what it is). This race at Imola was the first of the ,new format’ races whereby we have a sprint on the Saturday to determine the grid positions for Sunday. Where to start? Suffice to say , red Bull had a good weekend, Ferrari did not. Leclerc (currently leading the WDC by a country mile) seemed to get off to a great start, overtaking Verstappen for the lead into the first corner of the sprint on Saturday, only to lose it again a few laps from the end. Verstappen won the sprint (and 8 points) and started the GP on pole. The GP itself proved better for Verstappen/red Bull with Verstappen winning and Perez in P2. Sainz crashed out of the GP on the first lap, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, Leclerc hit a wall, damaged his front wing (luckily managed to keep his engine going and not retire the car) a few laps from the end and lost a near cert podium position. Red Bull, on the other hand scored Maximum points and are now only 11 points behind Ferrari in the WCC. Leclerc is still P1 in WDC but not by so much, Verstappen has moved into P2 in WDC, Russell thrashed x7 WDC Hamilton again this week , in both the sprint and the GP, but moved into P4 in the driver standings , behind Leclerc, Verstappen and Perez. Poor old Sainz scored null points this week and seems destined to cement his position as Leclerc’s wingman at Ferrari, Aston Martin scored a decent haul of points as both drivers finished in the top ten in the GP, and Lando Norris got himself on the podium (P3 in the GP). So , having said all this, I wonder if you can guess who won our coveted Driver of the Weekend title?

Driver of the Weekend: Max Verstappen 35.1% of reader vote.

Yes, you guessed it, it was none other than Max Verstappen, for all the reasons stated above, i.e. pole on the Sprint, losing P1 but winning the sprint, starting on Pole and winning the GP, moving up to P2 in WDC, and becoming a contender in the WDC again? (Certainly Red Bull are in with a shout of the WCC, against Ferrari this year). Looks as if Charles Leclerc may not have it all his own way after all!! Well done Max!!

@F1TheaJ