Throughout the race, the Dutchman loomed in Leclerc's mirrors and was in DRS range with a few laps to go, stalking the Ferrari and making his move for the lead with two laps to go.
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Max Verstappen won the first Sprint of 2022, passing Charles Leclerc with two laps to go and securing pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday. The grid for this Sprint was set in the wet qualifying session on Friday, with Verstappen taking pole over Leclerc and Lando Norris leading Kevin Magnussen off the second row. The top eight, rather than the top three, now receive points in a redesigned format, providing even more motivation to give it their all on a rainy Saturday afternoon.
As the lights went out, it was Leclerc who took the lead from Verstappen, much to the delight of the tifosi – only for the Safety Car to intervene when Zhou Guanyu (DNF) and Pierre Gasly (P19) collided through Turn 9 on Lap 1. On Lap 5, green-flag racing would resume, with Leclerc leading Verstappen and Norris.
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With Verstappen in tow, the championship leader skated away. Throughout the race, the Dutchman loomed in Leclerc’s mirrors and was in DRS range with a few laps to go, stalking the Ferrari and making his move for the lead with two laps to go – sliding by into Tamburello. Sergio Perez, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate, finished third, having gained three positions in the first ten laps and pried P3 away from Norris on Lap 11 with DRS.
McLaren’s Lando Norris has dropped to P5, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz moving up six places after crashing out of Q2, causing him to start 10th on Saturday. With only two laps remaining, Sainz took P4 from the McLaren. Daniel Ricciardo remained sixth, ahead of Valtteri Bottas in a fast-moving Alfa Romeo, who took P7 from Kevin Magnussen in a medium-tyred Haas late in the Sprint. Magnussen won the race by a single point over Alpine’s Fernando Alonso in P9 – who started fifth but couldn’t keep up with his rivals on the softs – and Mick Schumacher’s Haas in P10 on the mediums.
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After losing positions at the start, George Russell recovered to 11th place, finishing ahead of Yuki Tsunoda of AlphaTauri and Sebastian Vettel’s Aston Martin, which gradually fell out of the top 10 and into 13th place by the finish. In another tough performance for the Silver Arrows, Lewis Hamilton started 13th and finished 14th. Lance Stroll, who started P15 for the Sprint, rounded out the top 15 for Aston Martin.
Esteban Ocon started the Sprint in 19th place due to gearbox issues, but he moved up three places to P16 in the Alpine, keeping Pierre Gasly, who collided with Zhou at the start and pitted for a nose change, in 17th place. Due to a brake fire in qualifying, Williams’ Alex Albon started last and finished 18th, with teammate Nicholas Latifi 19th and Zhou the lone retiree on Saturday. Verstappen will start first on Sunday, ahead of Leclerc, with Perez and Sainz sharing the second row.
