In the main stage of the F1 Grand Prix Imola that ended tonight Beijing time, the Home Ferrari Team suffered a crushing defeat, and their rival Red Bull Racing won the top two.
Zhou Guanyu, the Chinese driver of the Alfa Romeo team, was the last to start from the pit and finish 15th.
The start of the Enzo Dino Ferrari circuit was particularly intense. Red Bull driver Verstappen, who was number one in the starting line, was the first to rush out and did not make the mistake of starting in the sprint yesterday and being climbed by rival Ferrari driver Leclerc. Leclerc started off exceptionally badly, overtaking Red Bull's Perez and McLaren's Norris in the first corner, falling from second to fourth.
Then at the second bend, Ferrari driver Sains was knocked out of the gravel by McLaren's Ricciardo and couldn't drive out, and had to retire, and the safety car had to move. The collision also triggered a small collision between Renault driver Alonso and Haas driver Mick Schumacher, causing Alonso to rupture the side box after a few laps and also had no choice but to leave early.
In the last place, Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu, who started from the maintenance zone, took advantage of the accident, coupled with the 14th lap to overtake Mick Schumacher, to improve his ranking to 16th. However, after the pit stop on lap 20, Zhou Guanyu fell to the end of the team. On lap 24, Mick Schumacher made a mistake and was once again overtaken by Zhou Guanyu.
After all the drivers swapped the half-rain tyres on departure for dry tyres, the two leading Red Bull drivers, Verstappen and Perez, were significantly more competitive than Leclerc's Ferrari cars, holding firmly in the first and second places.
In particular, Verstappen continued to brush out the fastest lap speed, and when he was still on lap 31, Zhou Guanyu, who was ranked 16th at the time, "enjoyed" the first lap of his F1 career.
Zhou Guanyu did not give up easily, and he overtook Williams' Latife on lap 40 to improve his ranking to 15th. However, there is still a gap of more than 10 seconds between Mercedes and The United Kingdom's Hamilton, who is 14th in front.
On lap 54, Leclerc hit the wall with too many mistakes on his shoulder when he entered the corner, and although he drove the car back to the track, the front nose wing was damaged and had to be replaced, and he withdrew from the championship competition.
In the end, two Red Bull cars "smashed" at Ferrari's home stadium, and Verstappen and Perez crossed the finish line together with the first and second place. In the first four races of the already concluded 2022 F1 Grand Prix, Verstappen and Ferrari's Leclerc each won two main stages. Third place was McLaren's Norris, with Leclerc finishing at No. 6.
Zhou Guanyu finished in 15th place, the lowest ranking of the four races he participated in in his rookie season, with a 10th place and two 11th places in the first three races.
Another driver for Alfa Romeo, Bottas, finished 5th and scored points for the team again.
The next stop of the F1 Grand Prix will be to the United States, where the Miami race will be held this weekend from May 6 to 8, local time.