A chaotic Friday qualifying caused Sergio Perez to suffer an early setback in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix but with a sprint race and feature race to come, the Red Bull driver has plenty of time to make up ground — our picks expect him to do just that .
Last Updated: Apr 22, 2022 7:45 PM ET
Read time: 4 mins
The first of three sprint races on the F1 calendar in 2022 will take place this weekend at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with a 21-lap race on Saturday serving to set the grid for Sunday’s Imola GP.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took pole during Friday’s qualifying session to start first in the sprint race but Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc remains the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix odds favorite.
With 21 laps to go before Sunday’s grid is set, we’re ducking the race-winner market for now but still bringing you our Emilia Romagna Grand Prix picks and predictions, with racing action set for April 23 and 24.
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix picks and predictions
Pre-sprint race predictions
Picks made on 4/22/2022 at 6:00 pm ET.
Click on each pick to jump to the full analysis.
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Emilia Romagna GP predictions (pre-sprint race)
Top 6 sprint race finish
After a chaotic qualifying session, in which there were five different red flags, we were left with a mixed up first three rows with five different teams represented. The only team to have both drivers inside the Top 6 is McLaren, who enjoyed its first positive grand prix in Australia the last time out and again appear to have pace in Imola with Lando Norris qualifying third and Daniel Ricciardo sixth.
Despite Ricciardo’s place inside the Top 6 to start tomorrow’s sprint race, he sits at +100 with the seventh-best odds of finishing there on Saturday. While there will be fierce competition around him for a spot in the first three rows, including from Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz behind him, there are a couple of reasons to trust Ricciardo to maintain his Top-6 position into Sunday’s feature race.
The first is that the sprint race has been good to Ricciardo in his brief history, as an event that has typically rewarded the grid’s best pure drivers, of which Ricciardo is one. Last year’s sprint races saw him gain one place at Silverstone in a fifth-place finish and two at Monza (in a race he would win on Sunday) in a third-place finish.
The second is that, again, the McLaren appears to have genuine pace here. Norris and Ricciardo both qualified in the Top 10 in all three sessions, with Norris replicating his P3 finish in Q2 and Ricciardo replicating his P6 finish in Q1. In a brief 21-lap race, Ricciardo and McLaren should have the pace to maintain their position and secure a place in the first three rows for Sunday.
peck: Daniel Ricciardo – Top-6 sprint race finish (+100 at bet365)
podium finish
It was a hard-luck finish to qualifying for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who will start the sprint race in seventh after finishing Q1 in fifth and Q2 in fourth. While the constant yellow and red flags, as well as off-and-on rain, impacted the entire field, few drivers were as hard done by as Perez.
Twice Perez was in the middle of a lap that had seen him post a purple (quickest overall) sector or mini sector when a red flag occurred, forcing him to abandon his lap. While his abandoned lap in Q3, after Kevin Magnussen went off the track, wasn’t going to be quick enough to take pole it would have seen him finish in the Top 3. Instead, he had to settle for seventh, but he’ll have plenty of time to make up ground to earn a podium finish on Sunday.
Both Perez’s pace and the pace of Red Bull (his teammate Max Verstappen took pole) would indicate the team has at least the second-quickest car on the grid this weekend. Perez should be able to pick up positions in Saturday’s sprint race to position himself well for a podium finish Sunday. If the team’s qualifying pace carries into Saturday, this is as good as the price will get on a Perez podium finish all weekend.
peck: Sergio Perez – Podium finish (+120 at bet365)
