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Imola (AP) - In the rubble chaos of Imola, Sebastian Vettel experienced his next debacle with Aston Martin at Max Verstappen's brilliant victory drive.
In the spectacle with two safety car phases and a break in the race, the four-time world champion retired in 15th place with a gearbox damage on the last lap.
Newcomer Mick Schumacher demolished his nose at an early age and came in 16th without flaws to the eleventh career victory, the Red Bull driver Verstappen stormed, who also benefited from a gravel slide by Mercedes superstar Lewis Hamilton.
At the end of the day, the Dutchman won the day ahead of Hamilton, who with a bit of luck and a lot of steering skills saved second place.
“That wasn't my very best day, after a long time I made another mistake,” admitted the 36-year-old.
McLaren driver Lando Norris finished third.
Thanks to his fastest race lap, the seven-time champion Hamilton is one point ahead of Verstappen in the overall standings with 44 points.
"The season is still long, we are still catching up," said the 23-year-old Hamilton challenger.
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For Vettel, however, it was another weekend to forget.
A poor qualification was followed by a brake problem before the start of the race.
After starting from the pit lane, the 33-year-old Hesse later received a time penalty, drove far behind and finally had to end the Grand Prix prematurely.
Even the qualification had provided a lot of tension.
Hamilton kept the Red Bull duo Perez and Verstappen at a razor-thin distance, the first eight were close as seldom.
At Vettel, however, it was once again shown that his Aston Martin has lost speed due to the slight rule changes in the aerodynamics area.
Starting position 13 was the next disappointment after the badly botched season opener in Bahrain.
And the worries continued early on Sunday.
A shower put parts of the track under water, Vettel rolled onto the grid with overheated brakes.
Because of the problem, he had to go back to the garage and was only allowed to start the race from the pit lane.
Because he didn't have tires on the car in time, he later received the ten-second penalty.
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World champion Hamilton, who missed the start, did not go according to plan either.
Verstappen promptly passed and took the lead.
Because Williams driver Nicholas Latifi crashed into the lane shortly afterwards, the safety car had to deploy.
Schumacher made a rookie mistake when he lost control while driving serpentine lines to warm up his tires and crashed into the pit wall.
After the repair work, the son of Imola record winner Michael Schumacher was knocked off last.
At the restart, Verstappen defended first place just before the onrushing Hamilton, after which the Dutchman drove out a narrow lead.
The rest could not follow the top duo.
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The course dried up only slowly.
After 28 laps, Verstappen turned to change tires.
Hamilton came a lap later and had to get back into line behind his rival due to a slower stop.
Shortly afterwards, the champion slipped into the gravel trap, only with difficulty was able to free himself with a damaged car.
But it got even worse for Mercedes: A serious crash with George Russell in the Williams ended the race of the Finn Valtteri Bottas.
The good news: Both pilots were uninjured.
But the Grand Prix was suspended for 28 minutes to clean up the debris in the Tamburello corner, where Ayrton Senna lost his life in 1994.
When it started again, Verstappen was able to dominate the race from the front.
Norris surprised Ferrari star Charles Leclerc in the McLaren and took second place.
Beyond that, some people had a hard time keeping their car on the slippery track.
Hamilton started to catch up and soon raced from ninth to fourth.
Damage limitation was the maxim.
On the final laps, Hamilton had the podium within reach, after 54 laps he also grabbed Leclerc.
Compatriot Norris could not stop the Mercedes driver either, with three laps to go, Hamilton was second again - and even saved his championship lead.
“A super drive”, praised Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210418-99-254125 / 5
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