Max Verstappen delivers first shot of Titanic Lewis Hamilton battle

They had gone wheel-to-wheel briefly in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, but a mistake from Max Verstappen in running wide and being forced to give the place back to Lewis Hamilton ended it as a fight. 

But at Imola, the Dutchman set the scene for the first of heated clashes that would occur that year in his Titanic battle with Hamilton for the world championship. 

Verstappen was not fast enough for the front-row for the second Emilia Romagna GP since its 2020 COVID return, with new team-mate Sergio Perez out-qualifying him as Hamilton bagged another pole position. 

The start of the race was wet, with the field on a mixture of inters and full wet rubber, as Charles Leclerc spun off on the formation lap, but was able to get going again and take the start.

At lights out, the front-row of Hamilton-Perez was slightly tardy off the line as Verstappen moved initially to go through the middle, but eventually settled on the inside line to the left.

This would have the benefit of placing him on the inside for the apex of Turn 1 and Hamilton on the outside.

As the field charged to Tamburello, through the gloom appeared one Mercedes and one Red Bull, as Verstappen pulled off what could be termed the first 'Verstappen special.'

He simply made sure he got to the apex first and ran Hamilton wide, off the track and over the yellow sausage kerbs, causing minor damage to the underfloor of the Mercedes. What was that about seven world championships?

By Lap 22, Sebastian Vettel had pitted for slicks, with Verstappen following on Lap 27, as Hamilton made his own stop a lap later, hoping the extra tour on warm inters could help him leapfrog the Red Bull. 

A slow stop allowed Verstappen ahead as the race was turned on its head on Laps 31 and 32. 

As Hamilton was approaching Tosa through back-marker traffic, he lost control of the W12, skating through the kitty litter and coming to rest up against the barrier. He tried to drive out but nudged the barrier and fell from second place and was lapped.

But he got an extremely lucky break.

Next time by down the pit-straight, Williams' George Russell attempted a move on the Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas, but got it wrong and speared into the side of Bottas at over 200mph. 

Fortunately, both drivers were okay as their cars sprayed debris all over the track, leading to a red flag for clean-up and recovery.

Hamilton had fallen to eighth but for the restart, it was now fully dry, and the Mercedes had gotten his lap back, but it would not be easy to rescue a podium. 

Both Ferraris, McLarens and the sister Red Bull of Perez were between leader Verstappen and Hamilton, who had 29 laps to set off in pursuit. 

Perez kindly removed himself from the equation with a spin, and by Lap 60, Hamilton had finally passed the stubborn Norris for P2, effectively wiping out his rare mistake at Tosa, but Verstappen was long gone, over 20s up the road.

It was 1-1 in terms of wins between the title pair, but both said they were enjoying the cordial title fight, a stance which would last right up until about 53 seconds into the opening lap of the British GP at Copse corner...