Formula 1 today

And while it was a good afternoon for Red Bull and Ferrari, with Carlos Sainz rising to P4 from a starting position of P10, it was more struggles for Mercedes.

Today, you never know with the weather how competitive you are going to be but as a team we did everything well. “I had a little bit of an exchange with him and said ‘sorry for the car today. The team deserve it, from where we were in race one to a podium, it’s amazing. Charles Leclerc rubs his head in frustration as he watches the podium finishers be interviewed. But there are always tough moments in the life of a sportsman and it is my turn to go through them.” We just need to fix the car. And Norris beams: “[It was] an amazing race, an amazing weekend to be honest. We got squeeze by the Alpine and then there is just no overtaking when you are in a DRS train. We are not good enough for the world champion. Lando Norris completed the podium and George Russell finished fourth with a commendable drive in the struggling Mercedes. We did not have the pace. I lost seven valuable points for the championship.

Verstappen dominated in the wet-dry race here at Imola to claim his second win of the season, with Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez second and Lando Norris ...

It's really tricky conditions and you need to feel the grip on the track and you need to stay on the track. Forecast shows that it could - and is perhaps likely to - stop raining before the race starts. that will be yellow flags and the end of his race. Six of one and half a dozen with the first-lap incident? Hamilton on the back of Stroll in the fight for 10th but he's been behind him a few laps now. I mean, that gives Verstappen enough of a gap to try the same. He was far too aggressive at the chicane at the top of the track. Out come Red Bull for Sergio Perez to try and do the same to cover the fastest lap point. He currently has the fastest lap point, taking it off Verstappen. Think Verstappen will hold most of his battery charge for the final couple of laps though. Verstappen does, of course, have the fastest lap point. He had a car that was set up for the wet and not the dry. A fast-starting Russell moved up three spots to eighth and then took advantage of the Sainz-Ricciardo accident to take sixth.

MAX VERSTAPPEN produced a hugely dominant performance to win this year's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

It is just going to take longer. Meanwhile, it was another disastrous afternoon for Lewis Hamilton, who was condemned to a lowly 14th-placed finish after failing to make up any positions before the end of the contest. Red Bull brought a number of upgrades to Imola and proved to be quicker than Ferrari over the course of the entire weekend as a result of their hard work behind the scenes. "Today, you never know with the weather how competitive you're going to be. The team deserve it, from where we were in race one to now scoring a podium. "Just because we have hit a rough patch, it is not in my DNA to pack up. A great weekend, the hard work all pays off." "Everyone's putting a lot of time and effort into this. He did a great job there. Top job to the team. The Mercedes driver has failed in countless attempts to get ahead of the Frenchman and could well be forced to stay in his current position between now and the end of the race. Charles Leclerc is closing in on the latter, though, and will be looking to force his way back up into second place before the end of the contest.