Red Bull leave Ferrari in their wake as Lewis Hamilton hits a new low

Red Bull Racing’s Christian Horner has hailed his team’s results at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as among their best ever. As well he might: It was Red Bull’s first one-two finish since Malaysia 2016 — Max Verstappen’s first season with the team, some 111 races ago.

At Imola, the Dutchman took pole position, the sprint-race win on Saturday, victory on Sunday and the fastest lap to boot. The haul was 58 points. Verstappen and team-mate Sergio Perez move to second and third in the driver standings, with Charles Leclerc’s lead cut to 27.

‘It was just the rebound we needed after the disappointment of Australia,’ says Horner.

‘We attacked the weekend from the word go. [It] was one of our best-ever results.’

It left Ferrari reeling. The prancing horse wasn’t quite up to the RB18, much to the Tifosi’s misery. With two wins from the first three rounds, the fans thought their time had come. It would have been Ferrari’s first win at the circuit that’s named after founder Enzo and his beloved son, Dino, since 2006. But it wasn’t to be.

Leclerc drove cautiously around other cars, failing to make an attack on Verstappen. A late mistake across a sausage kerb while chasing down Perez saw him pit for a new front wing and fall down the pack. He could have been second, or at least third. Instead he finished sixth.

Carlos Sainz Jr had a nightmare of a weekend. The Spaniard arrived full of beans having just signed a two-year extension with Ferrari. But a mistake in Q3 saw him trash his car. He fought up to fourth in the sprint but was taken out at the start of the GP by Daniel Ricciardo, the McLaren driver admitting fault and visiting the Scuderia’s motorhome afterwards to apologise. Regardless, it will have been an uncomfortable journey