2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Old-school circuits punish mistakes, and old-school circuits in the wet punish them heavily as Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and George Russell found to varying degrees as Max Verstappen won the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Verstappen stated that drivers “are not robots” after making a mistake in qualifying that left him third on the grid, but he seemed to have his launch programmed pretty perfectly as he made a mockery of a wet grid to barge past Hamilton to lead into Turn One.

A heavy downpour less than an hour before the race had left the track wet, with drivers choosing between full wets and intermediates for the start. Only Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon and the Haas drivers went for the former and it proved to be the wrong call, but it was understandable given the drama that kicked off before the race had even begun.