Max Verstappen held on right to the end to pick up his 59th career victory at the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Verstappen struggled with his car throughout the weekend but was able to start the race on pole position and managed to hold on to his lead right at the end despite heavy pressure from McLaren's Lando Norris.
Over the final ten laps of the race, Norris cut the reigning World Champion's lead, with less than a second separating the two by the time Verstappen crossed the line.
Verstappen's race time came in at 1:25:25.252, while Norris crossed the line just 0.725 seconds behind, cutting the seven-second lead that the Dutchman had held over ten laps before the end of the race.
Speaking after the race, Verstappen commented: "The whole race I had to push flat out to try and make a gap initially."
"On the medium tyres, we were quite strong, on the hard tyres it was a bit more difficult to manage, especially in the last ten-to-fifteen laps, I had no grip anymore, I was really sliding a lot."
He added: "I saw Lando closing in so the last ten laps was just flat out."
"It's very difficult when the tyres are not working anymore and you have to go flat out, so I couldn't afford to make too many mistakes."
He concluded: "Luckily we didn't and super happy to win here today."
While Max maintained his impressive lead at the top of the Drivers' standings, Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez had a difficult day finishing P8 after starting the race in P11.
Climbing three places and earning four points was a positive for the Mexican driver, but falling so far behind where the team would expect him to be has seen him drop to third in the standings, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc now occupying second place - 48 points behind Verstappen.
Pérez's future with the team is still up in the air, with the 34-year-old needing to consistently podium in order to effectively make the decision for the Red Bull hierarchy, and slipping further back from the pack will not be something he hopes to happen again as he looks to secure his future beyond the 2024 season.
It's a quick turnaround for the team in this European leg of the season, with the Monaco Grand Prix taking place next weekend, so any issues the drivers had with the cars this weekend will need to be looked at carefully before they take to the track.
