Emilia Romagna GP: Teams and Drivers report from Imola

From there, the reigning Formula 1 champion simply controlled the proceedings at Imola keeping both McLarens at arm's length benefiting from a Virtual Safety Car while surviving a Safety Car later on to take his second win this season.

Verstappen remains third in the Formula 1 drivers' championship but has closed the gap to Piastri down to 22 points as Lando Norris remains in second, now 13 points behind his teammate after taking second at Imola.

While we have already covered what the top teams and finishers have said, check out what the others said.

Alex Albon: I'm very happy. P4 was possible today if the Safety Car didn't come out at the end or if you take away the Charles incident, but I'm not going to say I'm disappointed with P5! When I look at the battle with Charles, I would probably have done the same; it wasn't that crazy, he was just trying to hold his position, but then I lost out to Lewis. Maybe I could have been a bit more patient with my overtake of Charles, but at that point in the race I was feeling so good that I was thinking: 'Oscar is up ahead on worn tyres, maybe I could go after him!'

I'm still very happy with the race; on pure pace we were running P4, P5, so we were able to extend the first stint and that set us up for the whole race. The consistent pace we're showing opens up the window for what else we can do, so let's keep going and enjoying it.

Carlos Sainz: Obviously I'm disappointed right now after another weekend where we had good pace and I felt really good all weekend, but for one reason or the other, we don't seem to catch a break on Sundays. It hurts to miss a top five finish on a day that we were quicker than Mercedes and Ferrari. In hindsight, stopping early and then the VSC compromised our result. We need to keep making steps forward on communicating better during the race and I know better days will come, I have no doubt about it. We keep pushing team! On to Monaco!

James Vowles, Team Principal: Really great result for the team today with another double points finish, and yet there is still some disappointment as there was more available to us. But we've been fast all year long and we are progressing relative to some giants; we were running on genuine merit up in a podium position. Alex executed an absolutely mega drive. I was on the edge of my seat watching him fighting against the Ferraris. He came off on the worst end, although he did get ahead of one of them by the end. I'm proud of what he's achieved and how he raced today. It's a shame with Carlos; it was a very tricky call in the beginning and we didn't get it right, but it will be his day and we will get him up into the right positions - we win and lose together.

Isack Hadjar: "It was a good weekend here in Imola and I'm happy with my performance. I had a difficult start to the race and lost two places; that definitely didn't help us, and I know I'll need to work on that to improve it. The pace was strong and I'm really satisfied with the job of tyre management we did throughout the race. There was a point in the race where we were P7 and I thought we were bringing it home, but unfortunately, it was just a shame for us when the safety car came out, so we'll review everything with the team to understand if we could have done something differently. It feels good getting a couple of points; I'm proud of the team as they did a really good job. Looking at next week, I think that racing in Monaco as a rookie is going to be impressive and very hard, but I'm really excited and I can't wait to drive an F1 car there for the first time."

Liam Lawson: "Pretty disappointed for everybody, we just got caught by safety cars today. We had good potential and had pace all weekend but unfortunately we weren't able to show it and that's what put us down the back. It's been a difficult weekend but I'll keep working hard to turn it around. We are always learning with the car, every weekend I'm getting more used to it, we are heading in the right direction. Monaco is an iconic track and it is my first time, I'm excited to get there; it is very special and will be one to get up to speed with quite quickly. I'm looking forward to going there and getting right back into it."

Laurent Mekies, Team Principal: "After travelling the world for the past three months, it's been an enjoyable experience to return to Europe and our home race. Thanks for a great job by everyone back in Faenza and Milton Keynes; we ran a few upgrades across both cars, and with the factory just a short distance away, a large number of staff were able to come to the track, with seats in our own dedicated grandstand to see the result of all their hard work. It's encouraging to see that the changes to the car delivered the pace to put us in the fight in the sharp end of the midfield. Although Isack and Liam know Imola well, neither had raced an F1 car here before and the narrow track, tricky kerbs and waiting gravel traps present a real challenge. Plus, all the drivers had to deal with the unknown of Pirelli's softest C6 tyre. Overall, the performance this weekend was strong, both in Qualifying and in the race, with P9 in both cases for Isack. He drove a brilliant race today, being one of the cars able to manage to go for a near optimum one stop. The first safety car helped us a bit whilst the second one was a bit of a dilemma, as we decided to fit another set of fresh tyres, but got stuck in a DRS train behind Sainz and Russell. We will take the two points and keep working hard as a Team to keep improving in every area, as we have been doing for the past year. Liam's weekend certainly looked more difficult overall, but we can see that his speed is there in the data, and again today he was particularly unlucky with the safety cars timing. We now head straight to Monaco, a very different type of track, but the lessons learned here will still prove useful, especially as regards to Qualifying, often the key moment on the streets of Monte Carlo."

Fernando Alonso: "The car was very strong today and I was having a good race until the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) turned our race upside down. I think without this VSC we could have been fighting for P6 or P7 and scored points on merit. At the restart we were out of the points but managed to overtake three cars in nine laps and we just ran out of time. It's a real shame but let's hope for better luck in future races."

Lance Stroll: "The start of the race felt okay: I managed to pull away from Gasly and hold onto Albon in front of me. Unfortunately, with the Virtual Safety Car phase and the way the race unfolded, it didn't play out well for us today. Without the Virtual Safety Car, we might have been able to finish in the points so bad luck and a disappointing result. We now need to look to Monaco next week and see if we can continue to show signs of positive improvements with the update as it's a very different track."

Andy Cowell, CEO & Team Principal: "We came within a whisker of scoring points, but the racing luck was not on our side today. A promising one-stop strategy was undone by the timing of the Virtual Safety Car (VSC) which dropped both Fernando and Lance outside the points. With hindsight, we could have pitted again under the VSC, but we did not want to sacrifice track position. We then struggled to hold off those cars with a tyre advantage.

"Nonetheless, we take away the positives from a weekend where we have seen genuine progress. The updates have added some performance and given us direction for the upcoming events. Credit to the drivers, too, who did not put a wheel out of place this weekend. It's onwards to Monaco now which is a very different challenge."

Pierre Gasly: "Personally, I am not happy with my race because I made a costly mistake and I know that should not happen. I had a good start, up to ninth place and then had to fight hard with Charles [Leclerc]. I thought I could make the corner at Turn 9 by going a bit wider with Charles coming up the inside. I turned in, had no grip, did not make the corner and it cost me five positions. We decided to do the two-stop, which was looking decent and we were probably going to be in a fight with the one-stoppers towards the end of the race. The late Safety Car gave those ahead a free pit-stop and we did not have enough tyre life to go towards the points in the end. Overall, we showed some good pace throughout the weekend. I felt happy with the car over one lap. We know next week [in Monaco] how important Qualifying is and hopefully we can capitalise on some of our strengths."

Franco Colapinto: "We had pretty good pace today but we were a little unfortunate with our strategy and, in the end, it was not the result the team was aiming to achieve. I think we had pretty good pace at the start of the race. The Medium tyre lasted very long and we were on a one-stop until the VSC came a few laps after I made my stop. It put me in a very difficult situation already with eight laps on the Hard tyres when the full Safety Car came out and after that I was struggling to keep the pace with the other drivers on new tyres. We had good pace in the car and we learnt a lot and gathered more valuable data for the team. I think better tracks are coming for us, especially Monaco. It is a place which requires very high confidence. I'm not quite there yet, I'm still learning more and more each time I am in the car so I'll build it up and I'm looking forward to it next weekend."

Flavio Briatore: "We were set for a good result today and had a chance for points before the Virtual Safety Car. Particularly with Franco we were planning on a one-stop strategy to the end and with the field being neutralised others were essentially given a free pit-stop. This happens in racing, and the final standings do not reflect where we could have been today. Next, we go to Monaco, one of my home races and a track where we can again have an opportunity to compete."

Ollie Bearman: "Honestly it wasn't a bad race at all but unfortunately, I had a problem in my pit stop. We were in a really good position going for a one-stop race so when the VSC came out, we switched onto the medium tire, and I was coming out behind Russell and he was P7, so we were on for a good race, but my wheel wasn't attached properly in the pit stop. The pace was good, the car felt good all weekend. There's been quite a few points we need to brush up on, yesterday was completely out of our hands, but we have a bit of work to do to put things together."

Esteban Ocon: "We had an air consumption issue, so I had to stop the car at the exit of Turn 7. It will be investigated but it wasn't ever going to be a great race to be fair, so plenty for us to review from this weekend and hopefully we can come back stronger in Monaco. I had a really good race start and made a few positions, and we boxed to try something different – and were ahead of quite a few cars at that point – but unfortunately degradation was a lot higher for me, which was unexpected."

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: "Obviously it was a very tough day. Starting from P18 and P19, we had to try something different. We did that with Esteban by pitting him on lap one - it nearly worked, but in the end he had a PU issue and he had to retire. On Ollie's side – he had pace. He spent most of his first stint behind the traffic with Colapinto, but as soon as Colapinto pitted, Ollie's pace was really good – so we were going for a one-stop then. We pitted under the virtual safety car, but then we had an issue with the pit stop and that killed his race. But again, after the safety car cleared, Ollie's pace on his last stint was amazing – it was really good. Even after the last safety car, his pace was very strong on an old set of hard tires. The positive is that the car had pace to score points. It's another missed opportunity though, that's the negative. We need to put this right."

Nico Hulkenberg: “This was one of the better races for me this year. We’ve been more competitive compared to other weekends and I had a better feeling in the car today compared to Friday and Saturday. In the race, we were lucky with the timing of the virtual safety car which put us in a position to fight for points. Unfortunately, the safety car towards the end of the race was of no help for us. At the restart I was surrounded by faster cars, and I was unable to keep Yuki (Tsunoda) or Fernando (Alonso) - on fresher tyres - behind me. In the end, everything combined to prevent us from scoring points. On pure pace, we still have some catching up to do, but the margins are so tight that small improvements can make a big difference.“

Gabriel Bortoleto: "It wasn’t the easiest race for me today. As a positive, our pace was good, especially on hard tyres, and I was glad to see that. The first stint was going well, but the Virtual Safety Car unfortunately came at the wrong time for us and cost us a lot of momentum. From that point on, it was difficult to make the most of any opportunities that came our way. It’s obviously frustrating, because we pretty much were in the wrong place at the wrong time for most of the race. Still, I am happy about this small improvement in terms of pace, even though the results don't show that. Now, it's time to analyse and understand where we could have done better and go for the next one in Monaco next week."

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal: “Ultimately mixed emotions coming out of the race. At one point after the safety car came in, it looked like Nico could score some points. But keeping a Red Bull behind you is difficult and then the balance dropped away and ultimately Nico finished P12. Gabi started P14 and we had high hopes for the race. Unfortunately, we were late to react to tire degradation and had to convert to a two-stop strategy, a decision we paid the price for until the end of the race. We were further impacted by the decision to try the mediums after the safety car, but that tyre proved not up to the job, and we lost track position as a result, with Gabi eventually finishing P18. We need to take a careful look at our internal processes and apply lessons learned quickly as we head to Monaco and then Barcelona.”