A bittersweet start of the weekend for Red Bull in Imola: pole position for Max Verstappen, P7 for Sergio Perez.

The first pole of the season for the Dutchman, who claimed it at the end of a red flag filled qualifying session, ahead of championship leader Charles Leclerc.

“It was good out there today but also very easy to make mistakes, so luckily we mainly stayed out of trouble,” he commented.

“We started on the slicks initially and then it started raining again, making the right call on how you wanted to prep your laps was key today and ultimately we chose the right one, so I’m of course very pleased with that.”

Verstappen closed his fastest lap just on time, as the yellow flags waved for Bottas’ technical issue turned into a red flag. The session was resumed with a one last flying lap to go, but drivers were unable to complete it as Lando Norris went off at Acque Minerali marking an early end for qualifying.

“When I saw the yellow flags for Valtteri I immediately lifted so there won’t be any trouble there, it does cost you lap time but luckily the lap was still good enough for pole,” he explained.

“Tomorrow looks to be dry and we haven’t really driven these new cars a lot in the dry here so hopefully in FP2 we can understand the car a bit more in different conditions.”

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The timing of the red flags wasn’t quite as fortunate for his teammate Sergio Perez, who will be starting Saturday’s Sprint behind Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren.

“Overall it’s a disappointing day, but we need to remember it’s just the start of the weekend. It just didn’t seem to work out for me today, we got a few things wrong,” he said after the session.

“It was important to get the temperature on the tyres and we couldn’t seem to get the right out-lap, we were just warming up the tyres and then we had another red flag.”

Nonetheless, he seems confident in the car and ready to climb his way up to secure a better position on Sunday’s grid.

“I am pleased with the pace of the car though, I am looking forward to tomorrow, hopefully we are able to progress through the field during the sprint and get a good start position for the race on Sunday.”