Verstappen beats Leclerc to take Emilia Romagna Sprint

Max Verstappen overhauled fast-starting Charles Leclerc to claim top spot on the grid for Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Verstappen dropped behind Leclerc off the line during the 21-lap Sprint but remained within sight of the Ferrari driver throughout the short race.

Verstappen used DRS on the penultimate lap to go around the outside of Leclerc into Turn 1 in order to secure the maximum eight points and first place for Sunday’s race.

Leclerc collected second place to extend his overall title lead to 40 points over new nearest opponent Carlos Sainz.

Sainz recovered from the foot of the top 10 to fourth, behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Lando Norris dropped from third to fifth and will front an all-McLaren third row on Sunday’s grid, with Daniel Ricciardo sixth.

Valtteri Bottas recovered from a subdued first lap to take seventh while Kevin Magnussen’s Medium tyre gamble backfired as he slipped from fourth to eighth.

Fernando Alonso was another to relinquish four positions as he lost ground at the start before ceding further spots to drop to ninth.

Mick Schumacher rounded out the top 10 on a day in which Mercedes once again struggled.

George Russell was 11^th while Lewis Hamilton took only 14^th after a poor first lap.

Yuki Tsunoda was 12^th as Sebastian Vettel dropped from ninth on the grid to 13^th, with Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll 15^th.

Esteban Ocon made little ground from his low-key grid spot and will line up from 16^th on Sunday.

Pierre Gasly was 17^th after a first-lap clash with Zhou Guanyu, which left the Alfa Romeo driver in the wall, while Williams took 18^th and 19^th, Alex Albon in front of Nicholas Latifi.

Sunday’s 62-lap Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is scheduled for 15:00 local time

	Position		Driver	Team	Gap
	1		Max Verstappen	Red Bull
	2		Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	2.975
	3		Sergio Perez	Red Bull	4.721
	4		Carlos Sainz Jr	Ferrari	17.578
	5		Lando Norris	McLaren	24.561
	6		Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	27.740
	7		Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	28.133
	8		Kevin Magnussen	Haas	30.712
	9		Fernando Alonso	Alpine	32.278
	10		Mick Schumacher	Haas	33.773
	11		George Russell	Mercedes	36.284
	12		Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	38.298
	13		Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	40.177
	14		Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	41.459
	15		Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	42.910
	16		Esteban Ocon	Alpine	43.517
	17		Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	43.794
	18		Alex Albon	Williams	48.871
	19		Nicholas Latifi	Williams	52.017
	20		Guanyu Zhou	Alfa Romeo	DNF