Pole sitter Max Verstappen won the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola, Italy on Sunday. The win was the three time World Champion's fifth this season and the 59th win of his career.

Verstappen and his Red Bull team struggled in the three practice sessions earlier in the weekend but put it together for qualifying and Sunday's Grand Prix.

"If you look at where we were at the beginning of the weekend, this was an extremely good result," said Verstappen. "There is a bit of work to do and things to analyse but we are looking forward to Monaco."

Verstappen's teammate, Sergio Perez, started 11th and finished P8.

Sunday's Grand Prix started as a plodding race on a track with very few opportunities to pass but turned into a nail biter at the end as McLaren's Lando Norris, who qualified outside the pole, started to reel in his Dutch rival at the end of the race but ran out of laps.

"It was a race of two halves for us today. The first half was really strong and we built a good buffer, but the second half Lando started to catch us very quickly," said Christian Horner, Red Bull Team Principal, "Max couldn't afford to put a millimetre wrong with track limits and the pressure of Lando behind, so a great job by Max."

"When we swapped to the hard tyres, it was a bit trickier to drive and more of a struggle to bring it to the end as tyres fell out of the operating window and we had really low grip." said Verstappen. "During the last ten laps I was really trying to survive on the tyres and managed to keep Lando behind, but it required a lot of focus as we were on the limit with the penalty."

"We managed to work through and take the win; I was definitely counting down the laps until the end and it was a great feeling when we took the chequered flag." said Verstappen.

To the delight of the tifosi in the Imola crowd, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc had a podium appearance with a P3 finish, the same position in which the Monegasque driver started.

"Today's race went well and we got even closer to our rivals. If we had qualified higher up, we could have presented our fans with an even better result," said Leclerc.

After starting fifth, McLaren's teammate was able to move up one position and finish P4. Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, who started outside the second row, finished fifth.

Piastri is have a brilliant second season and qualified outside the pole on Saturday but was hit with a 3-place grid drop after impeding Kevin Magnussen during today's Saturday's Q1 qualifying session.

"P4 for Oscar came from good strategy and good pace, allowing him to gain a place on a day when it was not easy to. P2 for Lando was a very strong result," said Ferrari Andrea Stella, Team Principal. "It was a surprise to be in contention for the victory at the end of the race. It came about as a consequence of how sensitive the tyres were today. "

Mercedes driver, Lewis Hamilton, had a decent day, starting eighth and finishing sixth. His teammate, George Russell, who started sixth, finished seventh.

Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll also had an excellent outing, starting 13th and finishing in the points at P9.

RB Visa's Yuki Tsunoda rounded out the Top Ten after qualifying P7. Tsunoda is having a brilliant 2024 with five Top Ten qualifying efforts and four Top Ten finishes.

Results Summary - Max Verstappen, Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Yuki Tsunoda, Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu, Pierre Gasly, Logan Sargeant, Valtteri Bottas, Fernando Alonso, Alexander Albon

Imola Final Results

POS	NO	DRIVER			CAR		LAPS	TIME/RETIRED	PTS


1	1	Max Verstappen		RED BULL 	63	1:25:25.252	25
2	4	Lando Norris		MCLAREN 	63	+0.725s		18
3	16	Charles Leclerc		FERRARI		63	+7.916s		15
4	81	Oscar Piastri		MCLAREN 	63	+14.132s	12
5	55	Carlos Sainz		FERRARI		63	+22.325s	10
6	44	Lewis Hamilton		MERCEDES	63	+35.104s	8
7	63	George Russell		MERCEDES	63	+47.154s	7
8	11	Sergio Perez		RED BULL 	63	+54.776s	4
9	18	Lance Stroll		ASTON MARTIN 	63	+79.556s	2
10	22	Yuki Tsunoda		RB 		62	+1 lap		1
11	27	Nico Hulkenberg		HAAS 		62	+1 lap		0
12	20	Kevin Magnussen		HAAS 		62	+1 lap		0
13	3	Daniel Ricciardo	RB 		62	+1 lap		0
14	31	Esteban Ocon		ALPINE 		62	+1 lap		0
15	24	Zhou Guanyu		KICK SAUBER 	62	+1 lap		0
16	10	Pierre Gasly		ALPINE 		62	+1 lap		0
17	2	Logan Sargeant		WILLIAMS 	62	+1 lap		0
18	77	Valtteri Bottas		KICK 		62	+1 lap		0
19	14	Fernando Alonso		ASTON MARTIN 	62	+1 lap		0
NC	23	Alexander Albon		WILLIAMS 	51	DNF		0

(image provided by Aston Martin F1 Media)