Imola’s marshals deservedly won a warming glass of rosé wine when it got dark after qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, such was the frequency of requests for them to wave red flags during a painfully slow, rain-affected session. By the end, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen had won a pole position, but so is the painful structuring of the format, while his pole is statistically listed in the record books, only for Saturday’s sprint race, which will decide the literal pole for Sunday’s GP.
Verstappen beat Charles Leclerc of Ferrari in second place and Lando Norris of McLaren in third. But for Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, the rain, the flags, the pathetic format faded into insignificance along with the excruciating discomfort of his team’s performance at Imola as they fell to their worst performance in almost a decade.
Hamilton only made it to the second quarter and finished in 13th place with teammate George Russell in 11th. They were unlucky as the rain prevented them from establishing better times in Q2, but they were apparently already struggling, and their car was suffering from a severe form of guinea pig that had plagued them all season. This is the first time Mercedes has failed to enter Q3 since the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix.
Hamilton was seen in a lively discussion with team director Toto Wolfe in the back of the Mercedes garage afterwards, and perhaps as a sign of disappointment, he was unusually critical of his assessment.
“It wasn’t a great session, it’s naturally disappointing,” he said. “Today we performed less as a team. There are things we should have done, but we didn’t. We will just keep working hard, but every weekend is a lifeline. ” He also flatly refused to explain the subject of his conversation with Wolfe. “It was all inside things,” Hamilton added. “I don’t want to share what I said.”
At the sharp end of the Mercedes once drove with an iron fist, it quickly became clear that the qualification will be decided by the two protagonists of the title Verstappen and Leclerc. He was found on the wet but dry track of the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, but the torrential rain returned in the middle to create difficult conditions at the end of the session, which was interrupted by five breaks with a red flag. Leclerc set the pace in his first hot lap in Q3, powerful in the second and third sectors, but was only two hundredths of Verstappen with a time of 1 minute 28.778 seconds.
The drivers continued to circle as the clock went down and Verstappen overtook his opponent by 1 minute and 27.999 seconds just before the new red flag when Valteri Botas stopped on the track. The pair may race once again in the last hot run with three minutes left, but as the rain got heavier, the session was brought to a suitable anti-menopausal finale, taken out of misery with another red flag, as Norris also came out.
Lewis Hamilton struggles with his Mercedes in the rain in Imola. Photo: Dan Istitene / Formula 1 / Getty Images
“It was a tense, long qualification,” said Verstappen, who was nonetheless pleased that Formula One was competing in Imola. “We are very happy to be here. This is an amazing track. It really punishes you, if you make a mistake, you can enter the wall. That’s what we like to do, really hard and difficult. “
However, serious business remains. Saturday’s 21-lap sprint race will not only determine the grid for Sunday’s race, but World Championship points will also be awarded to the top eight finishers on a scale of eight to one. Ensuring victory now has real weight. Paul gives Verstappen a chance to regain his points in the title fight, which Leclerc is leading with 71, and the world champion, who is retiring twice this season, is sixth at 25.
The sprint race was tested last year and the format was changed, but the most important issue around it remains unsatisfactory. This year, F1 decided that for statistical purposes, the fastest driver on Friday will be considered half-positioned, but the sprint race will still determine the network for the grand prize on Sunday. At this point, the driver will be on a pylon, but it is not confirmed that he has taken a pylon. The Byzantine, semantic war of F1 of the senses believes that the said pilot will be mentioned by taking “P1”. A confusing mess that is unlikely to satisfy either drivers or fans.
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Leclerc’s teammate, Carlos Sainz, was injured, caught in Q2, acted too hard and lost the back in the second turn of Rivazza, he finished 10th. Kevin Magnussen was in excellent fourth place for Haas, Fernando Alonso in fifth for Alpine and Daniel Ricciardo in sixth for McLaren. Sergio Perez of Red Bull was seventh, Botas eighth for Alfa Romeo and Sebastian Vettel ninth for Aston Martin.
Mick Schumacher was 12th for Haas, Guanyu Zhou was 14th for Alfa Romeo and Lance Stroll was 15th for Aston Martin.
Alex Alban withdrew from Q1 after a brake disc caught fire and exploded on his Williams and he would start from the back of the grille. His teammate Nicholas Latifi was 18th. Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasley were 16th and 17th for AlphaTauri, and Esteban Okon of Alpine was 19th.
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