Max Verstappen matched Ayrton Senna’s all-time record of eight consecutive pole positions by beating both McLaren drivers in Imola.
Despite struggling for balance with his Red Bull throughout practice, the world champion managed to take pole position by less than a tenth of a second.
Oscar Piastri took second just ahead of McLaren team mate Lando Norris. However, Piastri is facing an investigation and likely penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen in the opening phase of qualifying.
Q1
Teams were greeted with virtually identical conditions for the start of qualifying that they had for the three practice sessions, with sunny skies and warm ambient temperatures of around 23C. Following his crash in final practice, Fernando Alonso was able to participate in the session after Aston Martin completed repairs to his car.
Charles Leclerc set the early pace on medium compound tyres with a 1’16.463, two tenths of a second quicker than Lewis Hamilton’s first effort on softs. Lando Norris used soft tyres to go quicker than Leclerc with a 1’16.194, before Max Verstappen’s first effort saw him go to the top of the times with a 1’16.013.
Final practice pace-setter Oscar Piastri was the first driver in the 1’15s with his first push lap on soft tyres. Both Ferrari drivers opted to attempt a second flying lap on the same set of mediums they had used for their first attempts. Sainz improved to fourth, while Leclerc also improved to sixth.
Heading into the final minutes of the session, Alonso was the first driver at risk of elimination in 16th after running off the track at the exit of Tamburello and bouncing across the gravel. Both Haas drivers, Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg, were also at right, with Zhou Guanyu and Logan Sargeant alos in need of improving.
Alonso abandoned his final lap attempt and was eliminated in 19th on the grid. Sargeant improved but not by enough, but his final lap was deleted for a track limits violation, dropping him to last with no valid lap times. The Williams driver lost an earlier effort after going off at the exit of Villeneuve.
Magnussen was unable to follow his team mate Hulkenberg in Q2 after complaining that he was impeded by Piastri on his final attempt. The stewards announced Piastri would be investigated after qualifying. Hulkenberg’s progression eliminated Valtteri Bottas, who joined team mate Zhou back in the Sauber garage at the end of Q1.
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Q1 result
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