Imola - Qualifying

When the first session of qualifying in Imola began, the fans, especially those of Aston Martin and Red Bull held their breaths, eager to see if Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez would be among the cars making their way onto the track. That was because the two found the barriers in FP3 only a few hours earlier. Both teams seemed to have fixed their cars however, all in all, they were far from their usual state as we would later come to see. 

Q1 started with the two Alpines making their way out of the pit lane. The other cars followed soon after. Powered by the overwhelming support of the tifosi, the two Ferraris both set some quick laps, but the McLaren's and the RedBulls were quick to match their pace. We saw a few dangerous situations and some drives, such as Albon or Alonso, found themselves much closer with the gravel on the side of the track than they would have liked. Hulkenberg's incredible lap put him at provisional pole and even though he was quickly overtaken by Verstappen and Leclerc, fans were impressed by the competitive time. Bottass, Sargeant, Zhou, Magnussen, and, surprisingly enough, Alonso found themselves in the elimination zone. Hamilton ended up 15th, barely avoiding early elimination. 

The two Mercedes went out on track early in Q2. Russell set the time to beat and Hamilton had no problem beating it although their efforts would be in vein as the Ferraris, McLarens, and RedBulls found themselves to be much faster than the team led by Toto Wolff. The first surprise of the session was Tsunoda who ended up third overall, beaten only by Verstappen and Leclerc. The second was the unexpected elimination of Perez who ended the session 11th. He didn't participate in the remaining session and neither did Ocon, Stroll, Albon, and Gasly. 

Q3 saw a rather tied fight for the front row between Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren. For a while, the top five consisted of Verstappen, Norris, Leclerc, Piastri, and Sainz and was separated by point five second. With five minutes remaining and all drivers in the pits, tensions rose high. In the end, to the utter disappointment of the devoted tifosi, neither Leclerc nor Sainz found themselves on the front row. Verstappen took his eight pole in a row, tying the record of Senna himself. Piastri would have been starting tomorrow's race alongside the Dutchman, was it not for a penalty that dropped him to P5. Instead, his coveted position went to his teammate, Lando Norris. Piastri's demotion also helped the Ferraris, pushing them to fourth and fifth. Russel, Tsunoda, Hamilton, Ricciardo, and Hulkenberg followed the top five. 

Order of the grid

1. Max Verstappen 

2. Lando Norris 

3. Charles Leclerc

4. Carlos Sainz

5. Oscar Piastri

6. George Russel

7. Yuki Tsunoda

8. Lewis Hamilton

9. Daniel Ricciardo

10. Nico Hulkenberg

11. Sergio Perez

12. Esteban Ocon

13. Lance Stroll

14. Alex Albon 

15. Pierre Gasly

16. Valtteri Bottas

17. Zhou Guanyu

18. Kevin Magnussen

19. Fernando Alonso

20. Logan Sargeant