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DPA
Imola (Italy)
Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes took a sensational pole position for Sunday’s Formula One Emilia Romagna Grand Prix by beating Red Bull’s Sergio Perez by 0.035 seconds.
The seven-time world champion was surprised after he clocked 1 minute 14.411 seconds, around the 4.959-kilometre Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola to secure the 99th pole of his career on Saturday.
“I didn’t expect to be ahead of two Red Bulls, they’ve been so quick this weekend. The car is feeling much better, I want to thank the team for their hard work,” Hamilton said.
“I love the challenge, having two Red Bulls will definitely make strategy harder.” Perez in second will have his first front row start and out-qualified team-mate Max Verstappen, who will start the race in third.
“We should have been on pole today, I did a mistake on my final corner,” Perez said.
But Verstappen also went wide at Tamburello and that cost him time.
“Not so good in Q3, it was a bit messy, just not a good lap. You can’t be good all the time,” said the Dutch who had narrowly lost the season-opener in Bahrain against Hamilton three weeks ago.
Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauri close the top 5 on the starting grid.
Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas will be far behind in eight, while McLaren’s Lando Norris had to settle for seventh place after a a fast lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.
Ferrari, who had strong practice sessions, had their other driver Carlos Sainz out of Q3 in 11th.
The session was red flagged after around six minutes when Yuki Tsunoda spun at the Variante Alta and crashed. He was unharmed, but his car suffered huge damage.
“I was just too excited. For me, that was a silly mistake, so I feel really sorry for the team,” Tsunoda said.
At Alpine, Fernando Alonso finished 15th and for the first time since the Malaysian Grand Prix 2017 he was out qualified by a team-mate after Esteban Ocon finished ninth.
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel was 13th as he’s yet to have a good run with his new Aston Martin team.
Williams showed progress and managed to have both cars in Q2, something they haven’t achieved since the Hungarian Grand Prix in July 2020. George Russell was just over a tenth away from a Q3 place and will start the race in 12th.
Mick Schumacher didn’t escape Q1 and will start the race in 18th, with team-mate Nikita Mazepin in 19th.
Norris was the standout star of qualifying until his costly error on his final lap.
He was third fastest in the first session and improved one place in the second, and was a genuine contender for the front row.
But he ran just a smidge wide in Piratella and had the lap time that put him second ruled out for track limits. It means he starts a disappointed seventh, just behind team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who had lagged well off his pace all weekend.
Leclerc was again outstanding in the Ferrari, 0.4secs quicker than team-mate Carlos Sainz in second qualifying as the Spaniard was knocked out in that session and just 0.331secs off Hamilton’s pole on his final run.
Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly repeated his excellent qualifying position of Bahrain in fifth place, while behind the McLarens and Bottas, Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin completed the top 10.
Their illustrious team-mates lagged behind, Sebastian Vettel 13th in the Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso only 15th in the Alpine.
Alonso was beaten by both Williams cars, with George Russell taking an impressive 12th place and Nicholas Latifi, who had the edge on Russell until qualifying, in 14th.
“I was not fast,” Alonso said. “The car felt good, the balance was good, and every time I finished the lap I was quite happy with how it felt but definitely it was too slow to be higher on the classification.
“I guess I need to get better and understand better where is the limit of the car. Maybe on difficult tracks like this you need more trust in the car and maybe I am not into that level yet and I will try to improve for the next one.”
A minute’s silence was observed before qualifying in honour of Britain’s Prince Philip, who died last week aged 99.
Imola (Italy)
Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes took a sensational pole position for Sunday’s Formula One Emilia Romagna Grand Prix by beating Red Bull’s Sergio Perez by 0.035 seconds.
The seven-time world champion was surprised after he clocked 1 minute 14.411 seconds, around the 4.959-kilometre Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Imola to secure the 99th pole of his career on Saturday.
“I didn’t expect to be ahead of two Red Bulls, they’ve been so quick this weekend. The car is feeling much better, I want to thank the team for their hard work,” Hamilton said.
“I love the challenge, having two Red Bulls will definitely make strategy harder.” Perez in second will have his first front row start and out-qualified team-mate Max Verstappen, who will start the race in third.
“We should have been on pole today, I did a mistake on my final corner,” Perez said.
But Verstappen also went wide at Tamburello and that cost him time.
“Not so good in Q3, it was a bit messy, just not a good lap. You can’t be good all the time,” said the Dutch who had narrowly lost the season-opener in Bahrain against Hamilton three weeks ago.
Charles Leclerc of Ferrari and Pierre Gasly of Alpha Tauri close the top 5 on the starting grid.
Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas will be far behind in eight, while McLaren’s Lando Norris had to settle for seventh place after a a fast lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.
Ferrari, who had strong practice sessions, had their other driver Carlos Sainz out of Q3 in 11th.
The session was red flagged after around six minutes when Yuki Tsunoda spun at the Variante Alta and crashed. He was unharmed, but his car suffered huge damage.
“I was just too excited. For me, that was a silly mistake, so I feel really sorry for the team,” Tsunoda said.
At Alpine, Fernando Alonso finished 15th and for the first time since the Malaysian Grand Prix 2017 he was out qualified by a team-mate after Esteban Ocon finished ninth.
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel was 13th as he’s yet to have a good run with his new Aston Martin team.
Williams showed progress and managed to have both cars in Q2, something they haven’t achieved since the Hungarian Grand Prix in July 2020. George Russell was just over a tenth away from a Q3 place and will start the race in 12th.
Mick Schumacher didn’t escape Q1 and will start the race in 18th, with team-mate Nikita Mazepin in 19th.
Norris was the standout star of qualifying until his costly error on his final lap.
He was third fastest in the first session and improved one place in the second, and was a genuine contender for the front row.
But he ran just a smidge wide in Piratella and had the lap time that put him second ruled out for track limits. It means he starts a disappointed seventh, just behind team-mate Daniel Ricciardo, who had lagged well off his pace all weekend.
Leclerc was again outstanding in the Ferrari, 0.4secs quicker than team-mate Carlos Sainz in second qualifying as the Spaniard was knocked out in that session and just 0.331secs off Hamilton’s pole on his final run.
Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly repeated his excellent qualifying position of Bahrain in fifth place, while behind the McLarens and Bottas, Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin completed the top 10.
Their illustrious team-mates lagged behind, Sebastian Vettel 13th in the Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso only 15th in the Alpine.
Alonso was beaten by both Williams cars, with George Russell taking an impressive 12th place and Nicholas Latifi, who had the edge on Russell until qualifying, in 14th.
“I was not fast,” Alonso said. “The car felt good, the balance was good, and every time I finished the lap I was quite happy with how it felt but definitely it was too slow to be higher on the classification.
“I guess I need to get better and understand better where is the limit of the car. Maybe on difficult tracks like this you need more trust in the car and maybe I am not into that level yet and I will try to improve for the next one.”
A minute’s silence was observed before qualifying in honour of Britain’s Prince Philip, who died last week aged 99.
