How did Hamilton and Bearman overwrite the laws of physics at Imola?

Despite starting on the white-walled hard tyres at last Sunday's Imola race, seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton and Haas driver Ollie Bearman were the quickest off the line, beating their rivals who started on the softer medium rubber.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix brought a mixture of emotions for seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton. The Briton displayed relatively strong pace across the practice sessions, but his performance faded in qualifying as neither he nor his team-mate Charles Leclerc were able to make the cut in Q2.

Sunday's Imola race saw Hamilton start on the hards, and the Briton lost a place to his Mercedes replacement Andrea Kimi Antonelli at the start. Although he looked stronger than those ahead of him, he was unable to make any progress in the opening stages of the 63-lap race.

However, the Briton benefitted from the virtual safety car and the safety car as he was able to take fresh tyres while some of his rivals completed their pit stop before the VSC. Hamilton then displayed encouraging pace in the second half of the race, made several overtaking manoeuvres to end fourth on Ferrari's home soil.

The data provided by F1DataAnalysis shows that Ferrari’s seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton and Haas racer Ollie Berman achieved the quickest start at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix considering the time required to reach 200kph.

Curiously, both British drivers started the 63-lap Imola race on Pirelli’s hard compound which should have theoretically provided slightly less grip than the Milan-based tyre manufacturer’s C5 rubber.

Two other drivers who opted for the white-walled compound for the start were Nico Hulkenberg and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Sauber and the Mercedes drivers took three tenths and four tenths longer to reach 200kph.

Among the drivers who selected to start on the medium, Liam Lawson, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon and Carlos Sainz reached 200kph in the least amount of time while Isack Hajdar and race winner Max Verstappen required the most time to hit 200kph.

Interestingly, starting on the hards proved to be the better option for the start as those on the C4 compound were 0.065s on average than those who fitted the yellow-banded rubber for their opening stint.