IMOLA, Italy — If Max Verstappen was to stand any chance of defeating the dominant McLaren cars at Imola, he knew he’d have to make the difference at the start.

He’d won each of the past three Formula One races at this track. Each time, he’d led at the end of the first lap. As this is a track where overtaking is very difficult, and given the pace McLaren has shown lately (it won by almost 40 seconds last time out in Miami), a view of Oscar Piastri’s rear wing exiting the first braking point would have all but immediately ended his victory hopes.

Initially, that looked like Verstappen’s fate. In his words, his getaway from the lights from second on the grid behind Piastri “wasn’t that amazing”. He struggled for peak tire adhesion in the initial start phase. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner called his breakaway “pretty average.”

During the long run to Imola’s first braking point, the Tamburello chicane, Verstappen actually slid back to third for a couple of seconds as George Russell muscled to the inside in his Mercedes from third on the grid, nearing Piastri’s diffuser after making the best start of any of the leaders.

And then Verstappen produced magic.

He shot his Red Bull around the outside of Russell and then Piastri to emerge from the chicane with the lead.

It won him the 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. And, in a season when his talents behind the wheel keep him in the championship picture despite not having the quickest car, this could mark a significant career moment for the Dutchman.

“It was not an easy move to make,” Verstappen said in the post-race news conference. “But luckily, everything went well.”

Verstappen’s overtaking habits have faced scrutiny for more bad than good of late – his elbows-out approach when going wheel-to-wheel with rivals sometimes goes too far. Yet this pass proved how the same traits also set him apart. Few drivers would have dared try the move he did at Tamburello. Fewer still could have pulled it off.

Russell’s lightning start did play a small role in helping Verstappen. Because the Mercedes was on the inside and right behind Piastri, the McLaren driver could not move across completely to defend from Verstappen as the track grows narrower toward the Tamburello apex. Russell was actually not a threat to Verstappen, as he was essentially boxed in, having made too good a start. He was forced to lift and Verstappen was already back ahead of the Mercedes before the braking point.

Because Piastri covered Russell inside, Verstappen could stick to the normal racing line going into the first part of the chicane, which offers more tire grip than being off-line. Piastri then had to brake a bit earlier as his line was compromised, meaning the gap was open for Verstappen on the outside. Judging by the onboard cameras, while Piastri hit the brakes just before the 100-meter board, Verstappen did the same just after he passed by them, trusting there’d be grip on the racing line.

“I still had to come from far,” Verstappen explained. “As soon as I braked late and then came off the brakes, I felt like, ‘OK, there might be a move on.’”

It’s the kind of move we’ve seen Verstappen pull time and time again: holding firm around the outside. He tried it against Piastri in Jeddah two races ago, only for Piastri to run him wide — fairly, given he had the ‘right’ to the corner by virtue of being ahead at the apex, per F1’s 2025 racing rule. Verstappen then cut that corner to keep the lead, resulting in a penalty. Notably, at the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, his futile attempt to hold the outside while trying to pass Lewis Hamilton caused both title contenders that year to crash out of the race.

This time, Piastri was caught out. He admitted afterwards to being surprised by the move. “I thought I had it pretty under control,” Piastri said. What would he have done differently? “I would have braked about 10 meters later, probably.”

Piastri had nothing like the kind of speed that Verstappen was able to carry as he came off the brakes while turning left into the corner, but the gap for his car remained wide. By this point, Verstappen had enough of his car alongside Piastri, who kept his steering lock unchanged as the Red Bull edged into his field of vision on the right. The room was there for Verstappen.

“I just carried the speed in,” Verstappen said. “Luckily, it was sticking.”

That added speed would mean nothing if Verstappen couldn’t get it stopped. But he judged it perfectly. The left-hand side of the Red Bull remained well within the white line denoting the track limit as he nosed ahead of Piastri. The polesitter, after flicking the steering wheel right to turn into the second part of the chicane, suddenly found he had to back out. Verstappen kept his momentum up, drifting to the outside of the chicane’s exit to cover off the McLaren. The move was complete.

It required supreme judgement. “You have that kind of momentum swing (in terms of heavy car movement in response to steering inputs),” Verstappen said. “Going into Turn 3 (the second part of the chicane), then of course I knew that I was ahead. But it all goes so fast. You have to be really precise to try and not go too far off-line.”

Horner was full of praise for Verstappen’s precision at that moment. “Maybe Oscar was more focused on Russell,” Horner told reporters after the race. “He left the slightest of gaps and Max just sent it.

“It was kind of ‘win it or bin it’. Again, he’s just so good in that situation, where he just sees a gap. It’s so decisive for him.”

A killer move that drew gasps around Imola and cheers in the Red Bull garage. But neither Verstappen nor Piastri thought at that moment that the race was settled. “I was still not entirely sure how quick we were going to be,” Verstappen said, remembering how he’d also led early on in Miami before falling far behind the McLarens. Piastri also stayed calm given McLaren’s tendency to be better on its tires than the Red Bull this year, knowing there was a long race to run.

It would be the race’s decisive moment. Even with the strategic variety this event featured, holding track position ensured Verstappen and Red Bull could call the shots at the front. This was despite the medium tire not holding up well initially and luring some into committing early to a surprise two-stopper, before that compound then came alive again for those still on it after a period of graining. That made the one-stop possible again, which was complicated by the virtual safety car and real safety car activation periods. Red Bull just didn’t need to go on the attack with strategy — Verstappen had already done that when it mattered.

“At all times, Max had the pace,” said Horner. “He was able to respond. He never felt that we were under pressure from behind.”

Andrea Stella, McLaren’s team principal, congratulated Verstappen and his team on their performance, feeling Red Bull had taken a step forward with its car at a race where it introduced several more small design upgrades. But Stella noted the importance of that start move in deciding the outcome of the race on multiple occasions. “The race was very much decided by the episode, or just a swap of position, between Oscar and Max in corner one,” he told reporters after the race.

Much like his remarkable weekend performance at Suzuka last month, this win serves as a firm reminder to the F1 world of exactly why Verstappen is a four-time world champion. And, arguably, the best driver out there right now.

It is also an overtake that will go into the lengthy highlight reel of Verstappen passes — maybe even right to the very top. It’ll be up there with his wet-weather moves on Charles Leclerc around the outside at Suzuka in 2022, or on Nico Rosberg at Interlagos (also an outside line move) in the wet in 2016.

Of course, no overtake will be as significant in Verstappen’s career as the last-lap dive on Hamilton in Abu Dhabi in 2021, which clinched his maiden world title after that race’s officiating debacle. But if Verstappen manages to stay in the thick of the fight against the McLarens in 2025, Imola could become an incredibly important overtake in this year’s world championship fight, too.

And failing that? Hey, F1 still got to witness another moment of Verstappen excellence.