Max Verstappen Grabs His First Pole of the season

 

Max Verstappen Grabs Pole at a Chaotic Qualification session

Max Verstappen grabbed pole as Formula 1 tried out their new format of racing once again.
This format meant that the qualification session is held on Friday, as opposed to Saturday.
Today’s qualification gives us the result for the shorter 100km long sprint race that takes place tomorrow. In the first practice session, we saw the Ferrari powered teams push through to the top in a very wet Imola. The Tifosi however were in full force, with the Ferrari fans donning their raincoats to witness the greatness of the New formula one era. 

 

Q1 – Down to the wire 

The track looked to be drying as the drivers tried out the slick tyres after doing exhaustive wet tyre runs during practice. 

Lance stroll out in a stunning lap with 12 minutes to go, however, Alex Albons’s brakes exploded spectacular and broke his suspension in the process which got out the red flag.

A dramatic end to Alex Albon’s qualifying 😮#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/CRAbCUVUHI

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 22, 2022

This is a similar issue that took place in testing with Williams.
The Williams car of Nicholas Latifi had similar issues back then with his brakes.

However, once the session resumed Q1 went down to the wire. As the track changed conditions so did the leaderboards. In the end, it was the Both of the Alpha Tauris and Williams cars out, along with an unlucky Esteban Ocon, who didn’t manage to make it to the line in time for his time to count.

Mercedes were close to being knocked out in Q1! 🤯

Hamilton: “How far off are we? This is crazy”
Bono: “Currently 1.6 seconds off”
Hamilton: “Are we through?”
Bono: “A-firm, we are through”#ImolaGP #F1

— Autosport (@autosport) April 22, 2022

Drivers out at Q1 were
Yuki Tsunoda
Pierre Gasly
Nicholas Latifi
Esteban Ocon
Alex Albon

 

Q2 – Carlos Sainz and the rain 

Q2 showed us just how unpredictable racing is.
The teams were once again pushing hard when Carlos Sainz spun out and lodged his Ferrari into the barrier.
This once again got out the red flags. But this time, it started raining.

 

Agony for Sainz 😖#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/6NtDKdsjdS

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 22, 2022

This meant that the track conditions would change once again, so the bottom five could not set faster times. 

 

Five minutes remain in Q2…

…and no one’s going anywhere yet #ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/LUGZ9BIOjA

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 22, 2022

 

 

Q3 – Chaos

The rain played its part and we saw 2 crashes of Bottas and Lando Norris.
However, Lando Norris managed to get his car in P3 before he beached his car. A position which Magnussen found himself in, but he managed to keep his car running, He starts in P4 tomorrow, HAAS’s best qualifying position. The late red flags meant that Max Verstappen got on the pole as he set the fastest time ahead of the Sprint race. Charles Leclerc was in P2.

 

Max takes his first pole of the season! 🙌#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/ku9l7naaT1

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 22, 2022

The Final Classification looks like this 

QUALIFYING CLASSIFICATION 🔎#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/bsxwHoXTAh

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 22, 2022

Formula 1 Resumes tomorrow with another practice session from 4:00 to 5:00 PM followed by the mini race from 8-9 PM