Hard earned points as Lewis and George finish 6th and 7th in Imola
After a one-year abscence, Formula 1 returned to Imola. On a sunny Italian afternoon, Lewis and George delivered a solid race on the difficult old-school racetrack. Both drivers finished in the points, with Lewis taking P6 and George P7. As a cherry on top, George got the extra point for the fastest lap of the race.
George and Lewis started the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from sixth and eighth on the grid. Like the majority of the grid, the Mercedes duo took on the 63 laps of the seventh race of the 2024 season on new Medium tyres.
Lewis got off to a very good start and passed Tsunoda right away. Now right behind George, both drivers gave each other enough space and made it safely through the first lap. However, the pace of the W15 was not quite enough to keep up with the first five drivers.
The track and the DRS trains made it difficult to make progress, while Verstappen pulled away at the front. Piastri was consistently around two seconds ahead of George, while behind Lewis the gap to Perez was already ten seconds.
Albon had to pit again after his tyre change due to an incorrectly fitted wheel, but otherwise the start phase of the race went by without incidents. George was the first of the top drivers to pit on lap 21. After changing to Hard tyres, he rejoined the track just behind Ocon.
George overtook Ocon on the long straight on lap 23 and then Stroll shortly afterwards. Lewis, who still felt comfortable on his starting tyres, extended his first stint and pitted on lap 27. The Mercedes driver rejoined the track P9, just behind Stroll, who still had to change his tyres.
But Lewis took matters into his own hands and overtook the Aston Martin in the Variante Alta. Similar to George, who passed Perez in the Tamburello chicane on lap 31. At the halfway point of the race, our duo was in P6 and P8.