Credits: IMAGO / Michael Potts

Max Verstappen took his 59th career Grand Prix win at the 2024 Emilia Romagna GP, earlier today. But the road to victory wasn’t as easy as it has been for the three-time world champion off late. McLaren’s Lando Norris put in a late-race charge for his second consecutive Grand Prix win but was a day late and a dollar short. In the end, Verstappen took the chequered flag just 0.7 seconds ahead of Norris. This prompted revered F1 presenter, Will Buxton to make a bold season prediction.

Buxton took to his X (formerly Twitter) account to write, “Another Max win, but a Max win unlike we or he are used to. One more lap, and it’s two in two for Lando. McLaren have come to play. Ferrari aren’t far behind. Whisper it, but we’ve got a season.”

McLaren had carried their form from the 2023 season into this year. However, the Woking-based team unleashed performance from their MCL38 package with their first upgrades of the year at the Miami GP. These upgrades massively slashed the gap to Red Bull as Norris took his maiden win at the Miami GP.

And with today’s performance, they have set themselves up for a potential title fight with the Bulls for the remainder of the season. But McLaren aren’t alone. Ferrari’s first 2024 upgrades, debuted during this Grand Prix weekend, have also brought the Scuderia into the conversation about the title race.

How Max Verstappen held off a charging Lando Norris in Imola

Verstappen had kept his nose in front at the start, and steadily built a gap to the chasing pack – headed by Lando Norris. However, with just ten laps remaining in the race, Red Bull’s Friday struggles seemed to creep back into Verstappen’s RB20 again.

This meant that the #1 driver was being hounded by the MCL38 of Norris constantly, at the rate of noughts. After the race, Verstappen explained his grip and balance issues on the hard tires. Speaking about the last stint, he said, “I couldn’t afford to make too many mistakes,” as quoted by Formula1.com.

Norris was just seven-tenths away from clinching his second-ever Grand Prix win. Gutted yet optimistic about the season to come, Norris knew that even today, the win was just one lap away. “Yeah, it hurts me to say but one or two more laps and I think I would have had him,” remarked the Briton to PlanetF1.com.

The last 10 laps of the race would have been the longest on the Red Bull pit wall for Christian Horner. He admitted how tense the race got for the Bulls as compared to their normal dominant runs. However, the British boss credited Verstappen for doing a great job at withstanding Norris’ charge and emerging victorious, yet again.