[Official] Rate the Grand Prix: Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix 2024

[Born Racer]

What score do you give it?

[Aysedasi]

7 from me. I found much of the early to middle part fairly dull but the last 12-15 laps were obviously much more exciting as we had the possibility of some rare real action up at the pointy end.

[steve_r]

7. A slow burner, but Norris late push made it interesting at the front.

[BTCC frog]

I thought this was the best race in some time. The fact that it was Imola made a big difference. Qualifying was a lot more interesting on a track like this which is generally just good to watch anyway, and I liked the fact that drivers were punished with trips into the gravel rather than the two extremes of track limit penalties or hitting the wall. McLaren and Ferrari upgrades looked good which meant there was genuine intrigue going into the session about which of the top five could get pole and win the race which has been a rare occurrence recently, and it really seemed like driver skill made the difference.

Then in the race, I liked the fact that overtaking was difficult, which hasn't often been the case this year. It meant that the teams were really thinking about each other with the race strategies rather than just relying on being able to overtake if they caught up which has often seemed the case earlier in the year, and when overtakes did happen it felt really important that they were done then, which made it more meaningful.

And for the first time probably in over a year, we had a close battle at the end of the race where I genuinely did not know who was going to win, and particularly special about this one rather than Singapore 2023, for example, is that it did not come as a result of anything like a safety car that interrupted the race and slightly artificially closed everyone up, it was an entirely clean, uninterrupted race that ended with Norris right on Verstappen's tail and trying to get past, and even though he didn't manage it, it was still a great race and felt like the two best drivers in Formula 1 at the moment making the difference over the rest. It also sets up the rest of the season brilliantly now that it looks like three teams are all close enough in performance to give us some genuinely close battles for race wins, and maybe a title battle in 2025.

[morninggents]

Great race for the last few laps but overall only a 7. Good to be back at a real circuit. Hopefully the rest of the season will be closer than we have experienced for the last decade.

[BertMk2]

Originally Posted by morninggents

Good to be back at a real circuit.

Very much this so much better than street circuits!

[Aysedasi]

Originally Posted by BertMk2

Very much this so much better than street circuits!

Yes, 100% agree.

[S griffin]

4/10. Only really Norris' chase of Verstappen towards the end livened. Otherwise, not much else happening

[bjohnsonsmith]

I couldn't watch the race live, so it was C4 highlights. For the most part it seemed to be a rather dull race. However, it certainly came alive within the last 15 laps or so, as Lando hunted down Super Max. A couple more laps and it could have been a different story. 6.

[GT6]

8 from me a very suprisingly good finish