John N
There were crashes, spins, and red flags aplenty, but Max Verstappen grabbed the pole, timing his run on a drying track to perfection to pip Charles Leclerc. Here are the best facts and stats from a very long qualifying session.
- Qualifying featured five red flags, the most since the knockout format was introduced in 2006.
- Max Verstappen takes Red Bull’s 75th pole position in F1.
- Charles Leclerc has been first or second in every qualifying season.
- Lando Norris grabbed third – his team’s best qualifying performance of the year.
Kevin Magnussen finished fourth for his team’s best qualifying in their history. - The Dane had previously started P4 when he was on debut at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix. He also started fourth at the 2014 German Grand Prix.
- Fernando Alonso’s P5 is his first top-five start at Imola since 2006, when he raced for Renault.
- Daniel Ricciardo starts sixth and starts the Sprint from the same position he started last year’s race here.
- Sergio Perez grabbed P7 for his worst qualifying of the year, having started on the front row here last season.
- Sebastian Vettel reached Q3 at Imola for the first time, also Aston Martin’s first Q3 of the year.
- Mercedes have not failed to reach Q3 with at least one car since the 2012 Japanese Grand Prix, a streak of 187 races.
- Mick Schumacher tied his best qualifying of P12, also achieved in Bahrain this season.
- Yuki Tsunoda has failed to make it to Q2 in three of the first four races.
- His teammate Pierre Gasly also exited at the first time asking, for the first time since Mugello 2020.
- This year, Nicholas Latifi out-qualified Alex Albon for the first time, although Williams lost both cars in Q1 for the third consecutive race.
- Esteban Ocon suffered his first Q1 elimination since Austria 2021.
