© Getty Images2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Qualifying ReportMax Verstappen shook off a difficult Friday and a disrupted final practice session at Imola to roar back.
MaxVerstappenshookoffadifficultFridayandadisruptedfinalpracticesessionatImolatoroarbackandmakehistoryinatightqualifyingfortheEmiliaRomagnaGrandPrix,thatsawhimmatchAyrtonSenna’srecordofeightconsecutivepolepositions.TherewasdisappointmentforCheco,however,ashesufferedhisfirstQ2exitoftheseasonafteratoughfinalrunlefthiminP11attheendofthesecondsession.
“A really difficult weekend so far, even this morning, so I'm incredibly happy to be on pole here,” said Max after delivering a spectacular final Q3 flyer that left him less than a tenth ahead of the twin McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.
“I didn't expect that, but we made some final changes before qualifying,” Max added. “They seemed to make it feel a bit better. I could push a bit harder. I'm still pumping. The adrenaline is very, very high.”
Watch:Max'sQualiReaction
...featuring a special guest appearance from Lando!
Watch:Checo'sQualiReaction
FP3
After a tricky pair of Friday sessions for the Bulls, the final hour of practice at Imola was just as inconclusive for the Team, with Max missing out on a final qualifying sim after Checo crashed late in the session.
The Bulls spent the first part of the session running Medium compound Pirellis, working on the changes made overnight and the adjustments seemed to yield results with Max rising to second behind Carlos Sainz with Checo not far behind.
However, a mid-session crash for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso halted running for a brief period and then just as the Bulls were preparing for the quali sims late in the session, Checo took too much kerb at the Variante Alta and lost control of his RB20. His slide into barriers led to a last ditch scramble to get Soft tyres runs in but Max was denied and so he finished in P6 on his Medium tyre time, while Checo ended the session in P12.
Q1
At the start of Q1 it was Alpine’s Esteban Ocon who set the pace, with the Frenchman posting a lap of 1:16.645 on Soft tyres to top the timesheet ahead of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton. Charles Leclerc then edged past Ocon by 0.002, but on Medium tyres before Norris took over at the top thanks to a lap of 1:16.194, two tenths ahead of Checo who moved up to P2, 0.210 off the McLaren.
Max was now out on track, however, and on Soft tyres the Dutchman vaulted to the top of the order with a lap of 1:16.013. His stay in P1 was brief, though, and moments later Oscar Piastri, in the other McLaren, dipped below 1m16s to post a new benchmark of 1:15.940. Then, with a little over five mins left in the session, Norris moved ahead of his McLaren team-mate to take P1 with a time of 1:15.915.
In the final moments of the session, as Checo and both McLarens and opted to stay in the garage, Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg sprung a surprise by posting a lap of 1:16.841 to take P1. Max, however, was on another run and the Dutchman claimed the best time of the session with a lap of 1:15.762. Behind him, Leclerc put in another lap on Mediums and he took second place, just five hundredths off Max.
Further back, Checo eased through in P12 having only completed a single run, but there was no place in Q2 for Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu or for Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso or Williams’ Logan Sargeant who had both his hot laps deleted for track limits infringements.
Getting The Pace Right© Getty Images
Q2
In the first runs of Q2, the Bulls were out early, with Max posting a strong lap of 1:15.386 to take P1 ahead of Checo who posted a lap of 1:15.853 to sit in second place. However, as they settled into the cool down laps the other likely contenders for top spot began their first flyers and the Bulls were split by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz who stopped the clock at 1:15.702. Leclerc then claimed the quickest time of the session with a lap of 1:15.328 and a second surprise of the session arrived when RB’s Yuki Tusnoda jumped ahead of Max to take P2 three hundredths of a second ahead of the Dutchman. Checo, meanwhile, was pushed out to P7 behind Sainz as Piastri and Norris took P4 and P5 respectively.
And in the final runs, Checo lost even more ground. Max took top spot with a lap of 1:15.176, to beat Leclerc’s run one time by just over tenth, while Tsunoda stayed in the garage and went unchallenged in P3. Behind them, improvements were flowing in for others, and RB’s Daniel Ricciardo scraped into the top 10 with a lap of 1:15.691. That left Checo in P11 and while there seemed nothing outwardly wrong with the Mexican’s final lap, he couldn’t find the necessary pace and he slipped to his first Q2 exit of the year, 0.015s off Ricciardo. “What a mess,” was his succinct judgement of his unexpected exit ahead of fellow fallers, Ocon, Lance Stroll, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly.
The Dutch Lion On Full Send© Getty Images
Q3
With the margins so narrow at the end of the middle session, pole looked within the grasp of any of the top five, but in the first runs of the top 10 shootout, it was Max who took a tentative hold on the accolade as he laid down a marker of 1:14.896, 0.073s ahead of Norris, with Leclerc in third, a further seven hundredths back.
And in a tense sequence of final runs, Max reached out and grabbed his eighth consecutive pole with both hands, powering through to a best time of 1:14.746, just 0.074 ahead of Piastri, with Norris also within a tenth of the champion in third place.
“It’s very special,” said Max of equalling Senna’s record. “It's 30 years since he passed away at this track, so of course I'm very pleased to get pole here. In a way, it's a nice memory to him. He was an incredible Formula 1 driver, especially in qualifying laps as well. So, yeah, a great day for me, a great day for the Team!”
That's One Happy Max© Getty Images
HowTheBullsPerformed
| Rank | Driver | Team | Time | Gap | | 1 | Max Verstappen | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 1:14.746 | - |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1:14.820 | +0.074 |
| 3 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1:14.837 | +0.091 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:14.970 | +0.224 |
| 5 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:15.233 | +0.487 |
| 6 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:15.234 | +0.488 |
| 7 | Yuki Tsunoda | Visa Cash App RB | 1:15.465 | +0.719 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:15.504 | +0.758 |
| 9 | Daniel Ricciardo | Visa Cash App RB | 1:15.674 | +0.928 |
| 10 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | 1:15.980 | +1.234 |
| 11 | | Oracle Red Bull Racing | 1:15.706 | +0.530 (in Q2) |
