Another great Lewis Hamilton qualifying round and another political series in F1

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday can be seen live on Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and the BBC Sport website

One of Lewis Hamilton’s biggest rides stole victory from Max Verstappen and Red Bull in the first race of the season. Now, as the Mercedes driver put it, a “special” lap has taken pole position from his team’s rivals in second.

That’s a point of view anyway. Another reason is that Red Bull took the win in Bahrain by surprise after losing strategy and that Verstappen would start from pole position at Imola if he hadn’t run far in his final qualifying round.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday is well prepared. Hamilton is in pole position, Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez in second and the Dutchman in third. Hamilton and Verstappen start on the middle tire and Perez on the soft.

And while in Bahrain there were two Mercedes against a Red Bull at the top that played an important role in the race result, this time it is the other way around, after Valtteri Bottas was only able to achieve eighth place on the grid.

Hamilton pulls it out again

Hamilton was both incredulous and excited after sealing the 99th pole of his career. He did not expect to go into qualifying after falling 0.557 seconds behind Verstappen in the final practice session.

“We had that gap with the Red Bulls in P3,” he said. “I couldn’t go 0.6 seconds faster. We just lowered our heads and worked on getting the car into qualifying a little.”

On his first lap in the crucial final of qualifying, Hamilton snuck 0.091 seconds ahead of Verstappen, despite the feeling that he had lost some time at Acque Minerali. On his second lap, he was 0.15 seconds off his previous time at turn nine, but then faster the rest of the lap, finishing it just 0.022 seconds slower than his first.

Was this a qualification to hit some of his greatest anti-odds poles like Singapore 2018, was he asked?

“We didn’t really play it up,” he said, “but the fact is that there was a good gap with the Red Bulls in the last race.

“We felt we could close it down a bit this weekend, but that was a really clean qualifying.

“I think it’s just about adjusting to my own performance over and over again. I’m really grateful that I’m still taking steps in the right direction.

“Yes, it was a real surprise – no one on the team expected us to be on pole position. But it really was the cleanest lap I could put together and a little more. Whether it was a lap in Singapore or not ; it’s a different mood. But it was definitely good. “

Hamilton will have Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez by his side in the front row at Imola

Verstappen knew that the Pole was there to take away, but was phlegmatic and in a good mood about losing.

“Everything went well and in the third quarter I didn’t have a good lap in the last run,” he said. “I started out on two wheels at turn three. I know Honda makes good lawnmowers, but I don’t think this is suitable.

“It’s been a rough lap, the first for a while, but at least I tried. We’re not robots. Sometimes we make mistakes.

“But we were very close and that was positive. We have two cars near Lewis with different tires and hopefully that will cause some excitement tomorrow.”

As a matter of fact.

There is a possibility of rain. There will be opposing strategies. Can Red Bull avenge their defeat in Bahrain or can Hamilton stay ahead and make them pay for their mistakes again? It will be one not to be missed.

Norris ‘gutted’ after mistake

Without a doubt, McLaren driver Lando Norris was the most disappointed man in the paddock after qualifying.

The 21-year-old Brit had flown and wanted to fight for a place in the first two rows. For a brief moment it looked like he’d delivered, and his name showed up in the final laps in second place, with a time that would have put him third on the grid.

But he had run a fraction too far in Piratella, gone beyond the line limits, and it was cleared.

Instead, Norris will be in seventh place behind McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo, whom he was demonstrably faster than the whole weekend.

As Norris put it, “rules are rules” and “without track restrictions, racing would be terrible – they’re there for good reason”. But that was little consolation.

Norris wrote on Twitter after qualifying: ‘Sorry to everyone at McLaren. You deserve better today. ‘

“Things looked good and the car was pretty connected today, but I let everyone down to be a little bit disappointed,” he said. “One little mistake and everything goes down the drain.

“I have to put it on my chin and look at tomorrow’s race.”

Norris knows he’s facing a tough afternoon on a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult.

“It’s a qualification,” he said. “Today was the day I didn’t want to make mistakes and I made a pretty big one. It wasn’t very easy to overtake last year, but I hope I can try to make up for the places we did lost today. “

Aston Martin in political rank

Talk over the weekend was marked by an awkward political argument that centered on Aston Martin.

It’s a complicated subject, but the gist of it is that Mercedes and Aston Martin feel that their cars have been affected more than anyone else by rule changes introduced this year to slow the cars down. They question the fairness of this process and want more changes to rebalance it.

“The right thing is to talk to the FIA ​​and find out what exactly happened and why and whether something can be done to make it fairer,” said team principal Otmar Szafnauer.

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has gone even further, which means rule makers purposely chose these specific changes to slow them down after such a dominant year in 2020.

“I understand the topic, because how the rules were implemented last year, you can always question what the motivation was,” said Wolff.

“There is certainly a right to review, look at and discuss things with the FIA ​​to find out what actually happened and how things happened. So I respect Aston Martin’s investigation. Maybe things were aimed at us and it is acting about collateral damage. “

Needless to say, the other teams are short and sweet about their complaints.

Vettel’s start as an Aston Martin driver wasn’t particularly good. The four-time world champion finished 15th in Bahrain and only qualified for 13th place for Sunday’s race in Imola

What is the series about?

The argument focuses on the design philosophy. Mercedes and Aston Martin differ from all other teams in that they drive a low rake – the angle of the car from front to back. Everyone else drives a high rake to varying degrees, the back of their cars further above the ground.

These two different design philosophies generate downforce in different ways at the rear of the vehicle, where the rule changes were the focus.

Last year, when the pandemic devastated the beginning of the season and before it was clear how or if races would be possible in 2020, it was decided, in order to save costs, to postpone the extensive new rules planned for 2021 by one year, forcing the teams to adopt their To use 2020 cars for another year.

Tire supplier Pirelli said in this case the cars would have to slow down as the tires were already at their physical limit – as demonstrated by a number of mistakes last year – and the inevitable increase in cornering speeds from year to year would take them beyond that .

The changes in this regard were introduced in two phases last year, in May and August.

Aston Martin’s complaint is that the FIA ​​requested the second phase for safety reasons on the grounds that the tires would remain the same this year – only so that Pirelli decided to introduce a new, more robust tire. And they said they warned the changes to the rear of the cars would adversely affect them and Mercedes compared to the other teams.

Aston Martin pointed to their performance in the first race of the season to prove they were right. They point out that they had the third fastest car in Bahrain last year and that it was the seventh this year.

Competitors countered that it was only a question of a data set – and that no one knew for sure whether one approach to car design was more affected than another, since the teams work in isolation and cannot directly compare how the rules affect the cars of the affect others. Teams with low-rake cars don’t have a high-rake car to compare with – and vice versa.

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said: “The regs are the same for everyone and the same for everyone. I don’t think you can clearly say that a concept is better or worse. It’s up to us to challenge the design and ensure we perform independently the best performance from the regulations. “

Not only that, Aston Martin’s fastest driver last year – Sergio Perez – has left, and his successor Sebastian Vettel has had problems so far, so there is an immediate loss there.

In terms of statistics, Imola has tarnished the picture. On a different circuit, under different conditions and comparing the speed of this year’s cars with their predecessors on the same track in 2020, Aston Martin is actually fourth best of the 10 teams. But despite Hamilton’s pole, Mercedes lost more pace than anyone else.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said it was “naïve” to believe that the rules would be changed in the middle of the season. In any case, it is highly unlikely as almost all teams would have to agree, and it clearly will not.

Nevertheless, the bosses of Aston Martin – including the team owner Lawrence Stroll – met with the FIA ​​on Saturday evening in Imola. The process will likely continue for a while.