Lewis Hamilton is on pole position for this weekend’s Imola Grand Prix with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez joining him on the front row.
The reigning champion posted a time of 1:14.441, putting him just 0.03s ahead of the Mexican, while Max Verstappen completes the top three.
It briefly looked like McLaren’s Lando Norris would be joining his compatriot at the front of the field, but the Briton lost his fastest lap of the session for running wide.
The opening session was disrupted after Yuki Tsunoda spun, with the rear of his AlphaTauri colliding heavily with the tyre barrier, bringing out the red flag to allow the car to be recovered and the debris cleared.
Several drivers struggled with track limits early on, with Sergio Perez, Pierre Gasly and Nicholas Latifi all having lap times deleted for running wide.
Latifi recovered though, progressing to Q2 for just the second time in his career, as both Williams drivers made it through at the expense of the Alfa Romeo and Haas pairings.
His Williams’ teammate George Russell came close to securing a spot in the top 10 shootout, but missed out by 0.1s, as did Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Valtteri Bottas’s hopes of challenging his teammate for pole position disappeared as he struggled with oversteer, while a fast lap from Lance Stroll was ruled out as he also fell foul of track limits.
Provisional qualifying result:
1 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
3. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
5. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
6. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
7. Lando Norris (McLaren)
8. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
9. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
10. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
11. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
12. George Russell (Williams)
13. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
14. Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
15. Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
16. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)
17. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)
18. Mick Schumacher (Haas)
19. Nikita Mazepin (Haas)
20. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.