Max Verstappen WINS the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as Red Bull star fends off last-gasp charge from Lando Norris to secure his fifth victory of the season

Imola is a grand old track, but this Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was a tax return thrill until an iridescent late scare provided a possible harbinger of an exciting season ahead.

Max Verstappen won it, but no one needs to tell that. What they need to know is that his friend Lando Norris was as hot in the neck as a dragon.

We came here to Northern Italy hoping that McLaren would take the fight to them, that Norris’ first win in Miami would pose a growing threat to a Dutch monopoly.

It certainly now appears that this is the case, as they are the team that best understands the principles of the technical regulations. Yes, the Red Bull in the hands of a maestro stays ahead, but only just, by a fraction of a second.

That closeness was not very clear at first. Verstappen, starting on pole, was cleanly away, having aggressively aimed his cars at the racing line and Norris, next to him on the front row.

Verstappen celebrates after fending off a late attack from Lando Norris in Imola

The Red Bull star returns to victory after finishing second in Miami a fortnight ago

Verstappen cuts a relieved figure after celebrating with his Red Bull team on Sunday

The world champion maintained his lead through the opening chicane – Tamburello, the now redesigned spot where Ayrton Senna lost his life thirty years ago, and the die was cast. That probable fact was hammered home to Norris: Verstappen’s lead at the end of the first lap was eight-tenths, seemingly like a ticking time bomb.

In lap six the margin was two seconds. On lap 12, three seconds. On lap 20, six.

Verstappen’s only wobbles were minor at this stage. He hit the strange curb too hard and went airborne once. And he tried his luck by exceeding the track limits – a habit that earned him a black-and-white caution flag. Other than that, there are no problems at all – not yet.

It seemed clear that this so far uneventful race would end with Norris condemned to finish a miserable second place, but that’s a far cry from the way it happened in debilitating 25 degrees Celsius heat. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc came home third – where he started, uniformity befitting the early, sleepy fare.

But the event came alive in death. Could Lando Norris pull off a late heist? Could he pass Verstappen in the final throes to breathe life into a campaign that had seemed as dead as a dodo just minutes earlier?

From six seconds behind, with a handful of laps to go, the British star pressed his McLaren in pursuit of a car that has taken Max the Machine to the stars. Norris swallowed up the road in front of him until he was just 1.5 seconds behind with five laps to go.

Lando Norris (background) pushed the Dutchman to the limit in a thrilling finish

Norris makes a disappointed figure after coming agonizingly close to victory in F1

Verstappen’s panic crackled through his radio. Norris told his team he was doing everything he could to get his better-performing, though actually slightly older, tires working to do the killing. Verstappen had no grip. He stuck.

Two laps to go and the margin was one second. Then less than a second left when the final 3.05 mile circuit beckoned. Finally Verstappen was home. What a final, unexpected drama. The winning margin: 0.725 sec. Good stuff. “One or two laps would have been great,” said Norris. “But it wasn’t meant to be.”

Oscar Piastri took fourth place in the other McLaren.

Mercedes? They’re still stuck in the syrup. Lewis Hamilton finished sixth, behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. George Russell crossed the line in seventh at the end of a weekend in which he struggled all weekend.