Piastri topples Verstappen in interrupted qualifying at Imola
McLaren's Oscar Piastri has secured pole position for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. In a qualifying that was interrupted by two heavy crashes the Australian marginally beat Verstappen. Russell took third as Alonso surprised to 5th.
Qualifying at Imola kicked off with the usual suspects taking to the track first, curiously also including both Ferraris are they seemed to aimed for two efforts in this first section.
5 minutes into the session Alonso emerged on top of the timing sheet, beating Hamilton, Sainz and Leclerc. The Spanish Aston Martin driver was improved upon by Alexander Albon half a minute later.
Meanwhile Verstappen started his first attempt, ending up 2 tenths ahead of Albon in the first sector. Sadly for him that was for nothing as he had to abort his lap due to a red flag. This stoppage was caused by his own teammate as Tsunoda crashed off in Villeneuve after taking a bit too much kerb on the inside of the corner and thereby losing the rear. After spinning and doing into the tyre barrier sideways, the car also flipped but eventually came to a stop the right side up, allowing Tsunoda to step out without personal harm.
After a 15 minute break, the session was restarted with 12 minutes and 13 seconds left on the clock.
The first car to get on track was Colapinto, setting a time just hundreths slower than Alonso and little more than a tenth slower than Albon. Hadjar was next and manged to split Colapino and Alonso. Sainz then beat Albon's time before Alonso got himself on top of the timing sheet once again. That proved faster than what Russell managed half a minute later. When Verstappen crossed the line though he was half a second faster with Norris later slotting in between them. Norris on the other hand was only 6th fastest.
Towards the end of the session Bortoleto improved and briefly made it in 14th place but was moved down to 15th by a solid improvement from Stroll who moved up into 4th position. That was immediately the end of the session as Colapinto then crashed out, also at Villeneuve. The Argentinian lost the rear on the exit of the corner, spinning and slamming head on in the tyre barrier. The fact that Franco was able to step out unscathed really is thanks to HANS and the front impact structure in the nose cone.
That meant Bortoleto made it through while his teammate Hulkenberg was out thanks to a mistake a Aque Minerali, along with both Haas drivers. At least that was what it looked like on the timing sheet as Bearman seemed to have set a time right when the red flag kicked in. The stewards then started a long review process to decide whether that laptime was valid or not, repeatedly delaying the starting time of Q2.
Q2 was started at 16:58 local time, nearly a full hour after the start of qualifying with Bearman confirmed to be eliminated due to his time being set when the red flag had just been brought out.
Bortoleto was out first, but obviously all eyes went to Verstappen who also opted to go out early on. As Verstappen set the best time, Leclerc was out on track and beat the S1 time of Verstappen after a very poor showing for Ferrari in Q1. Leclerc and Hamilton both proved a lot more competitive and ended up third and fourth, behind Russell who went second fastest moments later.
Then came the McLarens with Norris about half a lap up on Piastri. When Norris crossed the line he was fastest but Piastri did even 0.020s better than his teammate.
When everybody set their first times, Hadjar was just behind the Ferrari duo in 7th, followed by Alonso, Sainz and Antonelli. Stroll, Gasly, Albon and Bortoleto therefore had to improve to make it into Q3 as Colapinto was obviously not participating anymore.
Hadjar was first out of the second tries and he immediately improved past the Ferraris to slot into 4th. Gasly and Albon later also bumped the Ferrari duo. Alonso and Stroll did the same while Sainz even posted the fastest time of the session, leaving both Ferrari duo eliminated, along with Antonelli, Bortoleto and Colapinto.
Q3 followed quickly with the Astons out first but beaten by Hadjar straight away. Norris did better, Piastri improved even more and Verstappen shaved off another 0.049s. Russell later slotted into 4th while Sainz, Albon and Gasly were the last to do their laps and also the slowest three.
A couple minutes later it was time for another effort, surely with tensions rising in the helmets. The McLaren drivers obviously didn't want to get beaten again for pole position, Russell surely looked for an improvement and Alonso was probably eager to ensure a place on the starting grid ahead of his teammate.
Piastri was out first and improved his personal S1 and then set the best of all second sector. The third sector wasn't his best but it was enough to take provisional pole again. Norris meanwhile had a poor second sector, making it impossible for him to take pole. Verstappen was stunning in the first sector but the rest of the lap was average, leaving him second with Piastri taking the honours for pole position.
Thanks to Norris' poor lap, Russell managed to move up into third place as Alonso proved again how well the Aston Martin was working here by taking 5th on the grid in huge contrast to their struggles to even make it through Q3 since the start of the season.
Carlos Sainz made it to 6th, completing an all Spanish third row on the starting grid.
