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Verstappen takes pole position in a dramatic qualifying session

 

RedBull’s Max Verstappen took pole position in a qualifying session ahead of the inaugural F1 Sprint of 2022 at Imola in Italy. After being hampered by a late red flag, Charles Leclerc placed second for Ferrari, and Lando Norris managed to take P3 on the grid for McLaren. During Friday’s free practice ( FP1 ) session, Leclerc topped the timing sheets.
The rain subsided well before Friday’s qualifying session, and the field emerged on soft tires for the qualifying phase ( Q1 ), in which Verstappen set the fastest time. For Q2, there was a more significant threat of rain, and Verstappen set those timesheets before Sainz crashed from P2, forcing intermediate tires to be donned. It was there that Verstappen set the early benchmark of 1m 27.999s – just as Valtteri Bottas crashed to bring out the fourth red flag of the afternoon with three minutes remaining.


Nearly eight-tenths off, Leclerc had one last chance to pry provisional pole away from the reigning champion but was left second and 0.799s off after the red flag. Norris took third for McLaren but slid off the track in the final seconds of Q3, while Kevin Magnussen finished a fine fourth for Haas, and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top five for Alpine.
In sixth was Norris’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo while Sergio Perez could only manage P7 for Red Bull, ahead of Bottas – who was eighth before crashing his Alfa Romeo. Vettel, managing Q3 in his Aston Martin, took P9 to leave Ferrari’s Sainz in a de facto P10 after hitting out of Q2.

Mercedes missed out on Q3, with both George Russell (P11) and Lewis Hamilton (P13) in the drop zone before the rain hit Q2. Mick Schumacher split the Silver Arrows for Haas in P12 while Zhou Guanyu was 14th, despite going P4 in Q1. That left Lance Stroll 15th for Aston Martin.
In a less-than-ideal start to their home weekend, Nicholas Latifi missed out on Q2 in P18 for Williams, behind both AlphaTauris – Yuki Tsunoda P16 and Pierre Gasly P17. Esteban Ocon suffered a suspected gearbox issue and ended up 19th. At the same time, Alex Albon was eliminated from Q1 when his right-rear brake caught fire and spread debris on the track, putting the Williams a provisional P20 on the grid for the Sprint.

Written by John N

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