Hamilton takes the ninety-ninth pole position with Red Bulls

Qualifying for the Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna took place on Saturday afternoon at the challenging Autodromo Enzo and Dino Ferrari, where every driver was tested to their absolute limits that weekend and some ended up off the track or in the barriers. Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the ninety-ninth time in his career.

With such a complicated and mentally demanding circuit, a cold track in a region where the locals are still legally required to wear their winter tires, and with the battle between teams in midfield and the two main teams at the forefront of this qualification was for formula -1 fans all over the world certainly exciting.

Q1 – Tsunoda crashes, both Williams make it through

In the first qualifying session Sebastian Vettel had the first trip off track shortly before Yuki Tsunoda took too much curb at the entrance to the Alta variant, could not gain full control of his car and turned backwards into the barrier. The incident caused a red flag and may mean the young Japanese driver will have to start from the pit lane on Sunday as the chassis and gearbox appear to have been badly damaged.

An extremely disappointing crash for Scuderia AlphaTauri Hondawho had done exceptionally well this weekend and were hoping for a possible top 6 start for both cars on the closest route to their team factory, which is only 10 miles away.

Once all of the debris was cleared, the weather and the track began to warm up in just ten minutes Sergio Perez, Nicolas Latifi and Pierre Gasly The opening laps were cleared by the stewards due to route restrictions, an issue that has had much controversy since the end of the year Bahrain Grand Prix.

In the final laps of the session, Latifi put in an incredible lap to move into the second quarter in twelfth. George Russell came to him when he was fourteenth. Nikita Mazepin got a good run from the last corner and a slipstream that meant he had to overtake Antonio Giovinazzi jeopardize the Italian’s lap in the last seconds of the session.

The five retired riders were Tsunoda, who after his fall the Uralkali Haas F1 Team Mazepin and cars Mick Schumacher and the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLENby Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen.

Q2 – Sainz eliminated, Russell almost makes it into the third quarter

Lando Norris set the fastest lap of the session’s opening runs with a 1: 14.718 on the soft tire. Pérez followed a different strategy than he did Red Bull Racing Team mate M.Verstappen ax When he took the soft tires, it became clear that he did not yet have the confidence to be able to drive quickly on the media for qualifying.

Daniel Ricciardo had a worryingly poor first lap while Sebastian Vettel had cleared his first lap for Track Limits. George Russell told his team that he was more comfortable on the middle tires and that that comfort was evident when Russell finished 10th on his first lap.

In the crucial final laps of the session, Pérez took the lead with a 1: 14.716 ace Carlos Sainz Jr. His lap time was deleted because he had driven over the white lines at the exit of the Alta variant Scuderia Ferrari The driver dropped out of the top ten and starts eleventh on Sunday.

Among the five cars that left the second quarter was the Alpine F1 team A521 from Fernando Alonsowhile it was a great session for the two Latifi Williams Williams in a career as top fourteenth and Russell as twelfth. There was more disappointment for that Aston Martin Cognizant Formula 1 team Newboy Vettel in the thirteenth and finally the aforementioned Ferrari by Sainz.

Q3 – Hamilton takes pole, Pérez beats Verstappen

In the opening laps of the final qualification, Hamilton was the fastest, while his team-mate Valtteri Bottas made a mistake at turn two and only managed to finish sixth in his first run. Lance Stroll had cleared his first lap, while Ocon and Ricciardo put bad laps on used soft tires.

At the end of the session, the lap that fans really focus on, Lewis Hamilton took his ninety-ninth career pole on the thirtieth track of his career with a 1: 14.411 Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team.

Pérez overtook his team-mate Verstappen and started in the front row of this career. Verstappen touched the grass, unsettled his car at Turn 3 and took third place behind the Mexican. Charles Leclerc raised hopes for Ferrari and the Tifosi, and Gasly made up for his AlphaTauri teammate’s fall in the first session by putting his car at the front of the third row of the grid.

In sixth and seventh place, the two McLaren F1 Team drivers were ahead of a disappointed Norris. Norris had done an absolutely blistering lap that would have put him in third place if he hadn’t exceeded the track limits. Bottas had a terrible session that ended in eighth place with Ocon behind and Stroll who hadn’t posted a lap time after both lap times had been deleted due to track limits.

looking ahead

This prepares us for an interesting weekend, because once we see two Red Bulls challenging a lonely Mercedes in the top three instead of the typical opposite. It will be particularly interesting if Pérez has a different strategy than Verstappen.

Bottas will have a long race to find its way through midfield that is sure to happen. McLaren got off to a bad start on the weekend but has really started where it counts and is hoping for another blistering Norris ride. AlphaTauri will be delighted with Gasly’s performance and hope that Tsunoda can find a way through the back markers and collect more points. Williams also hopes to build on a fantastic weekend that really shows how the old giants have played out.

Tomorrow’s weather is currently uncertain as rain may fall on the horizon, increasing the almost certainty that an incident could cause a safety car. This is sure to be a fun race.