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Grand Prix Emilia-Romagna: pole position goes to Max Verstappen

Rain also played a role during qualifying for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix sprint race at Imola. Mercedes-AMG had to swallow a bitter pill, pole position goes to Max Verstappen.

After a free practice session, the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari dried up a bit at the start of qualifying. Drivers could immediately get off on slicks. In Q1, Charles Leclerc was the fastest man with a time of 1:18.796. Verstappen was half a second behind that. It was more difficult for the Mercedes-AMG drivers. George Russell finally set the twelfth fastest time and Lewis Hamilton narrowly advanced into Q2 with a fifteenth fastest time. He was close to having both Mercedes in Q1.

At the start of Q2, rain began to threaten again. Verstappen was able to set a time of 1:18.793 at the start of the session and was therefore initially the fastest man. Sainz set the second fastest time, but the Spaniard made a mistake and crashed his F1-75 into the wall. The result was a red flag. It's a shame for the drivers who haven't set a time yet, because it started to rain again right after Sainz's accident. That meant most drivers didn't try again and everyone was counting down to Q3. It also spelled bad luck for Mercedes-AMG: both Russell and Hamilton failed to advance to the final session.

In the end, Verstappen, Leclerc and Perez battled for pole position on a soggy track. An early accident by Kevin Magnussen caused a brief red flag, but he was still able to return his car to the pit lane. Then the battle between Verstappen and Leclerc broke out. Initially, Leclerc was faster, but Verstappen was on his way to a significant improvement when Bottas' withdrawal caused a yellow and red flag. Verstappen fired, but still improved his time under the yellow flag. After that, the track got so wet that the riders couldn't improve their time. Verstappen takes pole position, Leclerc starts alongside him on the second row.

Qualification result:

Max Verstappen

Charles Leclerc

Lando Norris

Kevin Magnussen

Fernando Alonso

Daniel Ricciardo

Sérgio Pérez

Valtteri Bottas

Sebastian Vettel

Carlos Sainz

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