Max Verstappen returned to winning ways at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after a tense late battle with Lando Norris.
The Red Bull star has won five out of the first seven races in 2024 but will realise he’s under more pressure than he was throughout the entirety of last season thanks to McLaren.
However, there were talking points up and down the grid with strategy playing a key role in Imola.
Max Verstappen now has the best win rate of any driver on the grid, overtaking Lewis Hamilton after taking his 59 Grand Prix victory with the seven-time world champion coming home in 6.
There was another interesting stat for a driver who hasn’t been having the easiest time in recent races.
Lance Stroll finally returned to the points for the first time since Australia after a tough weekend for Aston Martin.
It meant that in his 150 Formula 1 race at Imola, Stroll overtook the career points tally of legendary driver Juan Manuel Fangio.
After weeks of struggles, the Canadian finally returned to the top ten after a string of difficult races.
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Lance Stroll overtakes Juan Manuel Fangio in F1 points tally after Imola Grand Prix
After a start to the season that saw Aston Martin ahead of the bottom five teams, the gap appears to have closed.
Fernando Alonso has outperformed his car all season but finally had a difficult weekend at Imola.
A crash in FP3 gave him very little time to prepare for qualifying and after a mistake during Q1 he ended up in 19 before deciding to start from the pit lane.
It meant that Lance Stroll outqualified his teammate for the third time this season but still didn’t manage to get into the final shootout.
The Canadian started 13 and Aston Martin decided to gamble on an alternative strategy on both cars.
Alonso started on the soft tyres and quickly pitted after failing to make any progress on a track that was nearly impossible to overtake on.
Lance Stroll was at the other end of the spectrum, starting on the hard tyre and hoping there would be a safety car.
That never arrived but Stroll drove brilliantly in the second half of the race at Imola to get into the points and overtake Juan Manuel Fangio.
The Argentinian is one of the most famous names in Formula 1, and in F2, another man from his homeland made a big impact in Emilia Romagna.
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After 150 races, Stroll’s two points in Imola puts him onto a total of 279, compared to Fangio’s unique tally of 277.64.
Fangio won five Formula 1 championships during the first decade of the sport.
The first title was won with Alfa Romeo, before switching teams halfway through 1954 to win his third championship with Maserati and Mercedes-Benz.
Mercedes-Benz powered his third title in 1995, before Ferrari and finally a return to Maserati completed his incredible record in F1.
However, Stroll – despite not winning an F1 race yet – has overtaken Fangio in Imola for two key reasons.
Firstly, there are a lot more races in a season now, giving Stroll plenty of opportunities to add to his total.
Additionally, in Fangio’s time, only the top six drivers scored points and a win was only worth nine points as opposed to 25.
The two drivers are incomparable in terms of ability, however, Stroll’s next targets is Ricciardo Patrese and Emerson Fittipaldi who are another two points ahead.
Incidentally, Fangio bizarre 0.67 points come from a half point scored in a shared car and a 1/7 of a point when he shared a fastest lap point with six other drivers during the 1954 British Grand Prix.
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