Max Verstappen holds off Lando Norris to win by 0.7sec at Imola

IMOLA -- Max Verstappen held off Lando Norris in a tense battle for victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, which finished with the two cars split by just 0.725s -- the smallest winning margin of the season to date.

Norris was visibly driving his McLaren to its limits as he cut into Verstappen's lead lap after lap, but ultimately fell just short of a second victory in a row following his maiden Formula One win in Miami two weeks ago.

"One or two more laps and I think I would have had him," Norris said after the race. "I pushed hard the last few laps, but I lost too much time to Max in the first part of the race. One or two more laps would have been beautiful, but not today."

With 20 laps to go, Verstappen appeared to be cruising towards victory, with Norris six seconds adrift and facing a threat from Ferrari's Charles Leclerc for second place. But as the McLaren and Ferrari exchanged increasingly fast laps in their private battle, they were also hauling in Verstappen, whose performance was starting to plateau.

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"I pushed flat out I had to try and make a gap initially," Verstappen said afterwards. "On the hard tyres it was a bit more difficult to manage -- especially on the last 10-15 laps I had no grip anymore, I was really sliding a lot and I saw Lando closing in.

"The last 10 laps was flat out and it's very difficult when the tyres are not working anymore and you have to go flat out. I couldn't afford to make too many mistakes -- luckily we didn't and super happy to win here today," he added.

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Around lap 47 of 63 the race turned on its head, with Leclerc missing his braking point at Variante Alta and cutting the chicane while trying to stay with Norris. Leclerc's mistake took the pressure off the McLaren driver, and allowed him to focus solely on closing the gap to Verstappen.

As Verstappen complained about the state of his tyres over team radio, Norris pushed his McLaren to the limit of adhesion -- and sometimes beyond -- through Imola's high-speed chicanes. Further pressure was on Verstappen following three track limits violations earlier in the race, which meant another trip beyond the white lines at the track's edge would have resulted in a five-second penalty.

As the two cars started the final lap, the gap between them dropped to under a second, but with so few overtaking opportunities around the lap, it was too little, too late for Norris. Had the race run one more lap, he would have almost certainly had the benefit of the DRS overtaking aid and a shot at passing Verstappen into the first corner.

Although tinged with some disappointment by missing out on victory, Norris' finish to the race underlined the progress McLaren has made since a car upgrade at the last round in Miami. With the help of a safety car Norris beat Verstappen to victory at that race, and the close finish in Imola suggests genuine battles for victory, which have been so rare in the last two years, could become more common.

Norris said afterwards: "I think we can happily say we're in a position of [fighting] Ferrari and Red Bull and it's what we have to get used to ... it's still a surprise to say 'it's frustrating not to win' but after last weekend and the improvements we've made it's what we should start to expect."

Leclerc finished in third place, 7.9 seconds off Norris after his mid-race mistake but still a comfortable 6.2 seconds ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Carlos Sainz secured fifth for Ferrari ahead of the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.

Leclerc said: "At least it's a podium of course, I'm only very happy when I win and today we didn't quite make it.

"We were very fast at the beginning of the stint with the hard [tyre]. We started to push and try and put some pressure on Lando, but later on they were incredibly quick. All in all, I think the race pace was quite strong. It's incredible to be here on the podium with all of the Tifosi."

Russell was on course to finish sixth ahead of his teammate Hamilton, but Mercedes opted to pit him for fresh tyres towards the end of the race to defend both Mercedes' positions from Red Bull's Sergio Perez, who was running an alternate strategy and closing on Hamilton. Mercedes' tactics worked, ensuring Perez finished eighth on a difficult weekend for the Mexican, which included a trip through the gravel at Rivazza on lap 17.

Lance Stroll secured ninth place for Aston Martin ahead of the RB of Yuki Tsunoda in the final points-paying position in tenth.

The next round of the season will take place in Monaco next weekend.