Ferrari needs to cure graining to win Imola F1 race

The championship leader appeared to have stolen a march over his Red Bull rival for most of the Saturday afternoon sprint race at Imola at he sat beyond DRS range and was 1.7s clear.

But the tide began to change on lap 15 of 21 when Verstappen commenced a run of personal best sector times to bring the gap down to 1.1s before dipping under a second to gain DRS.

His first run with the overtaking aid brought him to within 0.5s as Leclerc struggled with front-right graining on…