Five red flags and Verstappen’s pole

Cloudy. Rain. Air +12C, Rail +15…14C

During the qualifying sprint weekend there was only one practice, not three, as usual, and at Imola it was in the rain. At the beginning of the session there was a lot of water, towards the end the asphalt was almost dry. It was not possible to work with slicks and in cold weather only Ferrari was able to put the intermediate tires into working mode, which explained the big difference in the results.

After qualifying, the cars will be in the conditions of a “closed park”, when nothing can be changed about the cars, and on Saturday and Sunday it will be different again, which will make life difficult for the teams, but all more interesting.

Due to the gravel safety zones, almost every flight resulted in a stoppage of red flag sessions – they were postponed and postponed, the schedule was adjusted all the time, but Formula 1 qualifying started on time.

At the start of qualifying, the surface was dry almost everywhere, the riders put on slicks and searched for settings throughout the session. The hardest part was getting the tires up to operating temperature at the start of the fast lap, so many worked in series of laps.

first session much of the caution started on intermediate tires, only Vettel, Alonso, Stroll, Zhou, Okon and Bottas put Soft right away, but soon everyone switched to slicks.

In Albon’s car, on the first lap, the brakes of the right rear wheel caught fire – and the tire exploded, filling the track with burning fragments. The session was interrupted by red flags, Alex drove alone to the pits and didn’t leave.

Dozens of marshals went out to collect tire fragments and debris, after ten minutes the riders were able to continue the battle. Everything went to Soft.

Latifi turned at the exit of the sixth corner, he drove onto the grass, but continued.

The track condition and the results improved, everything was decided in the last seconds. The best time was shown by Leclerc, having passed the lap in 1:18.796, Tsunoda, Gasly, Latifi, Okon and Albon dropped out of the further battle.

Back upstairs second session The track was surrounded by clouds and the racers rushed to the track to have time to do a lap.

Ten minutes before the end of the session, red flags surfaced again – much to the chagrin of the trampled tifozi from the stands, Sainz’s car crashed and flew off the track after attacking the curb in Turn 18. Carlos was not injured, he was thrown into the pits on a scooter, but qualifying for him ended there.

The break again lasted ten minutes, but the situation changed – it started to rain. Most of the drivers stayed in the pits, some went out on intermediate tires to assess the track’s condition, but no one was able to improve.

Verstappen had the best time of 1:18.793, while Russell, Schumacher, Hamilton, Zhou and Stroll did not qualify for the final.

In the final everyone started the session on intermediate tires. Verstappen crashed but was able to continue. Everyone was on a fast lap when the attempt had to be aborted – Magnussen flew into the gravel – and the session was interrupted for the third time by red flags. Kevin was able to return to the track and drive to the pits, so the break was short.

Everyone started again on intermediate tires. Alonso attacked, showed the best time in the first sector – and flew into the asphalt safety zone in the second, ruining the circle.

The fourth time, the red flags appeared because of Valtteri Bottas, who stopped the car on the side of the road after the 15th corner. Just before that, Verstappen showed the best time – 1:27.999, and the rest had to interrupt the attempt. The evacuation of Bottas’ car took 14 minutes. Three minutes remained until the end of qualifying.

For the last attempt, everyone started on intermediate tires again. Verstappen complained about the lack of the clutch.

There was only enough time for one fast lap, but no one could improve – red flags appeared for the fifth time – Lando Norris flew out at Turn 13, crossed the gravel safety zone and jabbed the guardrail. Qualifying, which lasted 1 hour and 41 minutes, decided not to go ahead.

Max Verstappen won qualifying at Imola with his 14th career pole and the first of the season set Charles Leclerc second, but the grid for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix is ​​determined by Saturday’s short sprint.

Kevin Magnussen’s fourth place is the best finish in Haas F1 history.

Qualification Results