McLaren started the week in the headlines due to the fact Lando Norris found himself in the media spotlight. Following Lewis Hamilton’s record breaking 92^nd Formula One Grand Prix victory in Portugal, Lando Norris was criticized by some for his lackluster response to the feat. Since then, Norris has apologized on several occasions and McLaren would have been eager to make their on-track performance the reason for the headlines. Unfortunately, following Q3 for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the best McLaren achieved was ninth and tenth. However, a small crumb of comfort for Lando Norris by finishing ahead of his teammate Carlos Sainz once again. Nevertheless, the McLaren drivers could not hide their shock at the pace of the AlphaTauris racing at their home track.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is a condensed event seeing how it only had one 90-minute Free Practice event over the whole weekend. Even before qualifying began, the Saturday morning exploits of AlphaTauri had shown they would be contenders for a good haul of points this weekend. Pierre Gasly finished fourth in the only Free Practice session whilst his teammate Daniil Kvyat, whose future is still unclear, finished eighth on the timesheets.

https://www.motorlat.com/notas/f1/17658/f1-alphatauri-retains-pierre-gasly-for-2021-f1-season

McLaren in comparison were 14^th and 16^th…albeit on the medium compound in comparison to the thirteen soft tyre compound running cars ahead of 14^th placed Carlos Sainz. Both drivers of the Woking-based team also found themselves in this lowly position due to the fact other lap times had been deleted due to breaking track limits.

As qualifying rolled round, McLaren were confident of a better showing in qualifying but they would need some luck and on this occasion had none.

In Q1, Carlos Sainz found himself encountering traffic on a flying lap and so inevitably had to use an extra set of tyres and from that stage he never fully recovered and the Spaniard’s post-qualifying comments to the media showed he was not satisfied:

“I think today, we all expected maybe a bit more,” said Sainz. “We were quick in free practice and we were comfortable with the car. But in Q1, I had to run two sets of tyres, the feeling went a bit away, and then we were just playing catch up, which meant for Q3, I only had one set of tyres left, and I had to put together a decent lap, that was nothing special.”

“So we’re a bit far off from where we want to be. That AlphaTauri [Gasly] was nearly four-tenths quicker. So the AlphaTauri, the Ferrari [Leclerc in P7], the Renault [Ricciardo in P5] were just quicker than us today and we need to play catch up tomorrow.”

McLaren’s performance, or lack of one, was a shock to many in the paddock but they still finished ahead of both Racing Points who had a qualifying to forget. As such, due to the fact that McLaren are in a fierce battle with Racing Point in the Constructors’ championship, this starting position on the grid will come as a welcome relief.

Carlos Sainz’ teammate, Lando Norris, was equally open in his reflection on AlphaTauri’s performance which saw Pierre Gasly equal his career best 4^th place on the starting grid:

“I felt like we did a good job, but the other cars are just quicker, especially the AlphaTauris seem very quick this weekend,” Norris said during his post-qualifying comments to the onlooking media.

“Some races they’re very, very good, and other races, not so good, and this track seems to be one that they‘re very good at and confident,” Norris added. “Last weekend [at Portimao] it was just Pierre that was very strong, and now both cars seem to be very strong, so I guess that puts us two positions down from normal.

“We’re still ahead of two Racing Points, one of the Renaults, so it’s a good day, but [the AlphaTauris] still have that bit more pace that we were lacking today. But the car was nice to drive, I felt confident, we just weren’t quite quick enough.”

Speaking to the official website of the pinnacle of motorsport, www.formula1.com, Carlos Sainz showed that despite the outcome of qualifying he had savoured his moments out on-track at Imola. F1 is racing at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari for the first time since 2006 and the circuit is a welcome return to the calendar.

“I think the circuit is something really, really special,” Sainz said. “Hopefully it produces some good racing tomorrow and if not, I’m sure I will enjoy every single lap around here, because it’s really good fun.”

As fun as the circuit may be to drive around, it is yet to be seen as to what kind of Grand Prix awaits the spectators. Millions of which will be glued to their televisions at home following the Italian Government’s decision to hold the race behind closed doors.

Many predict, including 6-time F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton, that the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix will be a procession. McLaren will certainly hope that this is not the case as following their starting position achieved on Saturday - they clearly have a lot of work to do.