Verstappen Secures Pole in Emilia-Romagna Qualifying
Max Verstappen clinched pole position for the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in a dramatic qualifying session. He narrowly edged out McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris. Verstappen’s lap of 1:14.746s not only secured him the top spot for Sunday’s race but also matched Ayrton Senna’s record of eight consecutive poles.
A Close Battle for Pole
Despite a challenging Friday, where Verstappen failed to top any practice sessions, the Red Bull driver found his form just in time. His pole-winning lap was just 0.074s faster than Piastri, who continued to demonstrate McLaren’s revived pace. Norris followed closely, only 0.091s behind Verstappen, highlighting McLaren’s competitiveness this weekend.
However, the Australian’s impressive qualifying performance was spoiled by a three-place grid penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen of Haas. As a result, Piastri will start fifth, shuffling the starting grid behind Verstappen.
Qualifying Round 1: Early Leaders and Eliminations
The first qualifying session saw Piastri initially set the pace with a 1:15.940s, narrowly ahead of Verstappen. Norris briefly took P1 with a 1:15.915s before Haas’s Nico Hulkenberg momentarily grabbed the top spot. Verstappen eventually topped the session with a 1:15.762s, squeezed out Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.061s.
The first round also featured some notable exits. Fernando Alonso struggled with his Aston Martin after his crash in FP3 and failed to progress. The same was true with both Sauber drivers, Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu. Piastri impeded Kevin Magnussen who was on his final lap, and Logan Sargeant of Williams saw his fastest time deleted for exceeding track limits.
Qualifying Round 2: Verstappen Restores Order
In Q2, Leclerc initially set the bar with a 1:15.328s, closely followed by Yuki Tsunoda and Verstappen. However, Verstappen reclaimed his dominance with a late-session 1:15.176s, topping the timesheets by 0.152s.
This round saw the elimination of several key drivers. This included Sergio Perez of Red Bull, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly of Alpine, Lance Stroll of Aston Martin, and Alex Albon of Williams.
Qualifying Round 3: Verstappen’s Final Push
The final qualifying session was a close one. Verstappen’s first run put him ahead with a 1:14.869s, followed by Norris and Leclerc. On their final runs, Leclerc improved but remained third, and Verstappen extended his advantage with a 1:14.746s. Norris improved as well but couldn’t surpass his teammate, as Piastri put in a stellar lap to take second, just 0.074s off Verstappen.
With Piastri’s grid penalty, Leclerc will start from third, and Carlos Sainz will move up to fourth. George Russell and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes will start sixth and eighth respectively, flanking Yuki Tsunoda in seventh. Daniel Ricciardo and Hulkenberg round out the top ten.
Check out the final results of qualifying here.
Verstappen really had to give it his all to extract another pole position out of his Red Bull car. The Red Bull car sturggled at this track throughout the practice sessions and made evident again as Perez failed to reach Q3. This was a well deserved pole for the Dutch Lion as he had to fight to fend off the McLarens. Quick shout-out VCARB for a double appearance in Q3 at their home circuit. As for Ferrari, it was a bit of a surprise that neither of them finished in the top three initially. After Leclerc was the fastest in FP1 and FP2 then Sainz third place finish in FP3, it seemed as though at least one of them would place in the top 3 in qualifying. But now that Pisastri has dropped down to 5th, that boosted Leclerc to 3rd. There is still some work to be done for Ferrari to keep a place on the podium in front of the Tifosi.
With qualifying in the books, all that’s left is the main race on Sunday. I look forward to see how it will all unfold when the lights go out on race day.
