The fourth round of the World Championship kicked off today with a thrilling qualifying: on Saturday at 16:30h the world champion and Red Bull will start ahead of everyone in the 21-lap race that will decide the grid for Sunday’s GP. At his side in the front row Leclerc on Ferrari, followed by Norris (McLaren) and Magnussen (Haas)
Imola (Italy), April 22, 2022. The Rolex Formula 1 Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell’Emilia Romagna kicked off today (Friday) and welcomed the return of the big crowd to Imola: great racing first on dry and then on wet in qualifying, which on Friday of the fourth round of the World Championship saw Max Verstappen taking pole position. The world champion and Red Bull completed a thrilling qualifying session with the fastest time of 1’27″999, set in Q3 just before the red flag was shown following Bottas’ stop not faraway from the Rivazza corner. Verstappen finished ahead of Charles Leclerc and Ferrari, the current leaders in the championship standings.
Thanks to his best time in qualifying, the Dutchman will be on the first row of the grid for the Sprint Race starting tomorrow (Saturday) at 16:30h. Scheduled over 21 laps on a sunny day with spring-like temperatures, Saturday’s “mini Grand Prix” will decide the starting grid for the Grand Prix that will get underway on Sunday at 15:00h (63 laps). It is the first Sprint of the Formula 1 season, a format that is gaining the enthusiasm of the fans and that allowed the public to experience already on Friday a breathtaking qualifying.
Adrenaline was at its highest in the duel that also put Leclerc on the front row, who set the second best time in the wet in 1’28″778. With the third and fourth fastest times, in second row at the start of the Sprint there will be Lando Norris in the McLaren and Kevin Magnussen, fourth at the wheel of the Haas despite a spin and off-track at the Acque Minerali corner.
On the third row with the fifth fastest time is Fernando Alonso in the Alpine, followed by the second McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo. Seventh and eighth place for Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull and the Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas, while Sebastian Vettel in the Aston Martin and Carlos Sainz completed the top-10. In Q2 the Ferrari Spanish driver spun and hit the barriers on the outside of Rivazza 2. Sainz had already scored a time to enter Q3, but was unable to participate due to some damage to the left side of his F1-75. Shortly after Sainz went off track, which brought to a red flag and a short break in practice, it started to rain. The drivers who didn’t make it into the top-10 were unable to improve on the restart and they were left out of Q3. George Russell qualified with the 11th fastest time in the first Mercedes, ahead of Mick Schumacher (Haas) and the other Mercedes of 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, only 13th ahead of Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo) and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin).
Hamilton had been able to qualify for Q2 by just 4 thousandths in Q1 over Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese AlphaTauri driver finished 16th ahead of team-mate Pierre Gasly, who was faster than Williams’ Nicholas Latifi (18th). Stuck in the pits with a problem at the end of Q1 with no chance to improve, Esteban Ocon was only 19th with the Alpine, while Alexander Albon closed the group with the second Williams forced to retire in the early minutes because of an evident overheating in the brake area near the right rear tyre.
With about 130,000 tickets sold, Imola weekend will continue on Saturday in the “heart” of the Emilia-Romagna “Motor Valley” with all the other racing series in action (FIA Formula 2, FIA Formula 3 and Porsche Supercup) and the clou of Formula 1. Drivers and teams of the World Championship will be back on track from 12:30h to 13:30h for the second free practice session, while the Sprint will get underway at 16:30h and, in addition to be decisive for Sunday’s GP grid, it will also give important points to the first 8 drivers.
In addition to the show on track and the amazing view given by the return of the “tifosi” and fans on the grandstands, the Grand Prix of Made in Italy and Emilia Romagna has already received the great enthusiasm of the protagonists who are competing for the F1 title. Among these, the words of two former “Ferraristi”, Alonso and Vettel. Alonso, who won in 2005 at Imola, said: “Great memories of Imola, a good place for sports, many things happened here. I did not have a great race here last year and I want to change that”. Vettel underlined: “It is nice to come here and know that there will be people. Great track, many memories growing up as a child and watching the races here. Happy that we will have the ‘tifosi’ back. It’s always special to be here and race here”. The words of the drivers of AlphaTauri, the former Minardi and Toro Rosso team based in Faenza, were representative: “The energy is really high, everybody in the team is very excited about this race, our real home race of the season”, said Gasly, while Tsunoda underlined: “Definitely home race, my house it’s about 30 minutes from here, this is a very different race track, the teams are very motivated, I really love this track”.
