Imora, Italy - Max Verstappen returned to a happy place on 63 laps on Sunday. Against the idyllic backdrop of Imola’s Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, he once again controls a Grand Prix from his Red Bull cockpit: the show on the Tap, Pirelli Tires compete firmly in their best position, in their rearview mirror.

When everything fits in Verstappen, the four-time Formula 1 world champion looks unstoppable. Regardless of McLaren's strategy, the timing of the safety car or the best efforts of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, nothing can make Vestapon's charges make him a second victory on Sunday.

Despite his actions, his only other match this year - winning at the Japanese Grand Prix in early April, it is all the signs of harmony between humans and machines. In the championship game, Verstappen's 22-point deficit in the championship game was almost enough to make the gap smaller and smaller between his Japanese and Imola's victory - looking trivial.

Even in the baking heat of the Italian sunshine, a swallow is not summer. Just like Verstappen's performance was impressive, the mark of problem persisted throughout the rest of the season.

Verstappen in Imola is unparalleled

Verstappen's victory came into the first corner of the game through his outstanding advance on Piastri. Piastri seemed to look straight behind George Russell's Mercedes, braked relatively early in order to get into Tamburello and left a Red Bull-sized space outside, which Verstappen could only take advantage of.

"I thought I could control it, so it was a good move for Max," Piastri said. "Yes, I'll learn it clearly next time. At that time, I wasn't too worried about not being ahead, but our pace wasn't as strong as I expected, so that made the first corner even more complicated."

As Piastri said, this move proved crucial to the outcome of the game, and its importance matched the courage, skill and precision needed to achieve this goal.

"The Oscar is slightest, Max has just sent it out," Red Bulls principal Christian Horner said after the game. "It's win or trash. Again, it's a decisive moment for him to see the gap, and it's so good for him."

Since then, Verstappen has controlled the game.

As with the whole season, leading cars can make the most of clean air to manage their tires for best results, and subsequent cars can’t help but damage their rubber when running behind competitors. Running around behind Verstappen, the pressure of Piastri's front-line tires began to become visible after just ten laps, and the rubber's lattice had limited his ability to keep pace with Red Bull.

Before the race, a one-stop strategy seems to be the best way to win, and of course, if you lead after the first lap, but two stops are also viable options on paper.

"I think Plan A is very ambitious at the moment," Piastri said on Team Radio, referring to his opportunity to do a one-stop strategy job.

McLaren Pit Wall agreed and ordered the car 81 to enter the pit at the end of lap 13. It was a decision that Piastri's race never really recovered, but one McLaren is still willing to defend Sunday night.

"I think at the time, Oscar's tires were gradually getting a good chunk and Oscar passed some feedback," said team principal Andrea Stella. "It's not clear whether it's one-stop or two-stop.

“And if the hard tires perform much better, then the two-stop strategy would have been a very powerful one, despite having to surpass other cars. But once he continues to work on hard tires, it is actually no faster than the Lando and Max, and on the medium used.

“I think the competitive power of hard tires is a little less than we thought, but we need to deviate and create the conditions to beat the Max today. So I think this is something you can only judge after the fact, but if you deviate, it’s time to go for two stops.

"So no regrets. Ultimately, for the team, it was the same result, for the Oscars, it could have won, and sometimes, when you risk winning, there can be some downsides."

The virtual safety car (VSC) on the broken HAAS that resumed on lap 29 then provided an opportunity for the entire field to make its way to the entry just halfway through the race. Unfortunately for McLaren, Norris stopped in front of VSC and therefore did not benefit from the same efficiency pit stop, while enjoying a lap after the stop of Verstappen. The result is that once both of them stopped the pit stop and resumed the game at normal speed, the gap between the two was 20 seconds.

VSC also encouraged Piastri to make a second pit stop earlier than the 30th lap plan, meaning he has completed a two-stop strategy without benefiting from the bias tire advantage and Used up all his useful racing tires.

Piastri had only one set of medium-sized tires and two hard in his distribution, and his three sets of used soft tires were barely useful in racing conditions. If the race ends normally, that might not be a big problem, but when the safety car appears on lap 46, he no longer has any fresh medium or hard tires to switch to, so as both Verstappen and Norris are stuck for the last set of difficulties they have left behind, it has to be kept on track.

Piastri rose to second place due to his teammates’ stops under the safety car, but as the tires resumed 17 laps, he was unable to leave Norris behind. Verstappen disappeared into the distance of victory as two McLarens competed for the last place on the podium.

The way of racing is clearly paired with McLaren, but it's also clear this year that Red Bull has better racing cars.

"I think today we tried to unlock various scenarios to try to beat Max, but at any stage, I think we saw enough pace of the race," Stella said. "Even with the final safety car, Lando could pass the Oscar and push as much as possible, but Max almost responded to Lando."

Is Verstappen back in the championship battle?

Making the high-speed corner of the Imola Tour undoubtedly plays the edge on Michael Laren (Red Bull). Compared to the clumsy, slow-speed part that was perfect for Miami two weeks ago, the Imola is always likely to offer a more balanced battle between the two fastest cars on the grid.

"From a race like Miami, we have a very strong pace and we know that due to slightly different track layouts and environmental conditions, the balance of this game is more balanced from the perspective of the pace of the game," Stella said. "But I have to say that today, we were a little surprised by the speed of Red Bull, which is very competitive."

"Doing well with Max, doing well with Red Bulls because being able to achieve this kind of performance means the game is largely determined by the position swap between Oscar and Max. After that, we tried to chase him, but we actually didn't have enough pace to be able to beat Max today and take the lead after one lap."

Horner added: "This victory was unthinkable two weeks ago (in Miami). I think it was a big win for the team. At this stage of the championship, we felt like we built some momentum behind the scenes. The factory, everyone behind the scenes worked very hard. It was a timely victory champion, and it was a championship pressure.

Red Bull upgraded on the car floor in Miami and supplemented their further adjustments at Imola. The car is still hard to drive during two practice sessions Friday, but the setup changes made before Saturday’s final practice finally started unlocking lap times that were not accessible earlier this year.

"We still have work to do, but I do think it's a very positive weekend for us," Verstappen said. "Of course we came up with the upgrades and I think they work. Friday is still difficult, but I think we found a better setup on Saturday and I just hope we can use it more often because it will certainly bring the car to a better window."

By finding the balance that prevents the car from sliding, Verstappen was able to take care of his tires, which in turn provided better degradation management and more race pace.

The question now is whether a step in IMOLA will translate into similar performance for other circuits. Figuring out how much Verstappen's performance is specific to the circuit, and the cutting-edge of data analytics for Red Bull's and Mclaren starting Sunday. Fortunately, next weekend's race through the slow corner of Monaco's famous street tracks may have clear answers.

"I do think there are a lot of high-speed corners on this track, and I think our cars like it," Verstappen added. "I also think we took a step to the car's setup, which helped, but Monaco is of course very, very different. So let's see how we're doing there. Last year was very difficult for us. I wouldn't expect this time to get easier because there are a lot of low speeds, but we'll see."

"I mean, it's just a game on the calendar and you'll do your best. Even after that, there are a lot of games, but, of course, you can clearly see that once we get into the high-speed tracks and corners, we're more competitive."

For McLaren, the response to Sunday’s failure will be analytical, not knee-jerk. To achieve the anomaly of Verstappen's huge victory in Japan, the first six games have MCL39 as a class in the field and it may again be in the various circuits remaining on the calendar. Nevertheless, champion leaders are very aware that their closest competitors may have taken an important step.

"We're going to have to look at the data, we're going to have to look at the behavior of the tires and their heat regime, but I think what's going on today is a combination of (factors)," Stella said. "Red Bull, I think they've improved, they've been driving for the last few games, and I think they've taken a step forward."

“Then if we look at the speed of the corner and compare it to the speed of Miami, the car runs in a completely different aerodynamic map here, and I think we know our cars are strong in track and field layouts like Miami or Bahrain or China, but when it comes to the high-speed corners we have in Imola, I don’t like Imola, I think we have a specific advantage.

“So, track layout, Red Bull’s progress, I think they are two factors, which means we don’t have much advantage today.”