F1 | Emilia Romagna GP | Hamilton narrowly beats Perez and Verstappen to pole position
A simply sensational qualifying session produced a lot of surprises as Sergio Perez finished less than half a tenth off pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas could only manage 8th.
Q1
Mick Schumacher set the first of qualifying on a 1:16.806 in the Haas, which was exactly a second quicker than his teammate Nikita Mazepin.
Yuki Tsunoda brought out the red flags early in the session as he lost the car in the Variante Alta and hit the barriers, heavily damaging the rear of his AT02. His qualifying was over before it even properly started.
🚩 RED FLAG 🚩
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 17, 2021
Tsunoda crashes out 😫 He's okay, but his car isn't#ImolaGP pic.twitter.com/nUw98AftcR
Stroll on a 1:16.082 led Raikkonen, Schumacher, Russell and Mazepin as only five drivers could get a lap in before the red flag came out.
On the first laps, Bottas led Norris, Verstappen, Hamilton and Leclerc. Gasly, Perez and Latifi all lost times due to track limits Perez’s second attempt moved him up to P5, with Gasly going 7th.
Bottas, Hamilton, Norris, Verstappen and Perez filled the top five spots with five minutes to go.
Schumacher, Latifi, Mazepin, Russell and Tsunoda were in the bottom five ahead of the final runs.
Nicholas Latifi and George Russell put in great laps right at the end to see both Williams make Q2. The Canadian was P12, Russell P14. Fernando Alonso just made it through in the Alpine as he ended up 15th.
Both @WilliamsRacing cars make it through to Q2 for the first time since Hungary 2020 👏👏👏#ImolaGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/vDpYwIXBe3
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 17, 2021
Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, Schumacher, Mazepin and Tsunoda got knocked out in Q1.
Q2
Mercedes and Verstappen went on the medium compound for Q2 and it was close. Hamilton’s 1:14.817 put him fastest, 0.067s quicker than Verstappen and 0.281s ahead of Bottas.
On the soft tyres, Norris took over at the top, by 0.099s from his fellow Brit. Leclerc slotted into P4, splitting Verstappen and Bottas. Perez, Stroll, Sainz, Gasly and Russell completed the top 10 with five minutes remaining.
Ricciardo, Alonso, Ocon, Latifi and Vettel found themselves in the elimination zone before the last fliers.
Perez went fastest, followed by Norris and Leclerc. They filled the top three spots on the soft tyres. Hamilton, Verstappen and Bottas filled 4th to 6th, all on the medium compound. Gasly, Ricciardo, Ocon and Stroll also made it through.
Sainz was the big shock of Q2 as he could only manage P11, despite finishing less than half a second off the quickest time. Russell, Vettel, Latifi and Alonso also got knocked out. Less than 0.9s covered all 15 cars in the second segment of qualifying.
Q3
On the first runs in Q3, Lewis Hamilton logged a 1:14.411 to be fastest, 0.091s ahead of Max Verstappen. Perez, Norris and Leclerc completed the top five.
Valtteri Bottas had a big moment in the first chicane and could only manage P6 because of that. Gasly, Ocon, Ricciardo and Stroll (time deleted back of track limits) filled positions 7-10 before the last attempts in qualifying.
Despite not improving on his last lap, Hamilton stayed on pole position. Sergio Perez pulled out a stonking final lap at the end to beat Max Verstappen to 2nd on the grid and secured his first-ever front row start. Both Red Bulls ended up less than a tenth away from the Brit.
Lando Norris would have finished 3rd but a track limit violation at T9 on his lap meant his time was deleted.
Leclerc was a brilliant 4th for Ferrari, ahead of Gasly, Ricciardo, Norris, Bottas, Ocon and Stroll.
