Red flags, burning Williams or Carlos Sainz’s crash or what results did qualifying in Imola bring?

Formula 1 has completed Friday’s qualifying as part of the new race weekend format. It was full of red flags, technical problems, but also an accident, which was “taken care of” by Carlos Sainz in a Ferrari. So what were the results of qualifying?

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is the first venue this season to see the new format of the race weekend, which of course made its debut last year. All the action in Imola kicked off today, Friday 22 April, with the first free practice session, which, however, didn’t tell the teams much in terms of setting up their monoblocs.

The rain in Imola was heavy, so for the first time in the season the extreme wet tyres, marked with blue, were used. It should be noted that the parc fermé rule makes the car set-up all the more important than usual.

After qualifying, the teams subject their cars to a detailed inspection, after which the car settings must remain as they were after qualifying. The fact that the first practice session didn’t provide the teams with much data makes it even harder to set up the car not only for qualifying but also for the race.

At the stroke of 7pm on Friday, qualifying began, which determines the order for Saturday’s sprint. However, after less than three minutes it was already clear that Alex Albon in the Williams would start from the last position on Saturday.

The Thai rider’s carbon in the right rear wheel area had started to burn, causing his right rear tyre to simply explode. As a result, race directors suspended qualifying via red flags due to the burning carbon fragments.

In any case, Albon’s Williams was so badly damaged that the mechanics would not be able to repair it by the end of the first part of qualifying. Esteban Ocon also had technical problems with his car and would start 19th.

Eighteenth position at the start of the sprint will be taken by the second Williams – Nicholas Latifi. Both AlphaTauri drivers also failed to progress to the second part. Pierre Gasly finished seventeenth and Júki Cunoda sixteenth.

It should be noted that the Japanese driver lost only four thousandths of a second to fifteenth place Lewis Hamilton!

The second red flags were then brought out by Q2, or the second part of qualifying. In fact, Carlos Sainz shot his Ferrari at the start of the race, specifically at the last corner. The red flags immediately flew at the Imola circuit and qualifying was stopped again.

However, it started to rain during this time and due to the deteriorated conditions, the standings remained unchanged after about three minutes. Fifteenth-placed Lance Stroll, Kuan-yu Zhou, Lewis Hamilton, Mick Schumacher and George Russell did not make it through to the final stage.

The Mercedes team will not have a car in the top ten at the start of Saturday’s sprint, as Sainz managed the second fastest Q2 time before the crash.

Before the start of Q3, however, it is clear that the top ten at the start of the sprint will be completed by the Spaniard Sainz, who broke his Ferrari so much that the mechanics were not able to repair it for qualifying.

It should be added that the last part of qualifying was no exception in terms of the application of red flags. After two minutes of Q3, Kevin Magnussen ended up in the pits, but his Haas was not damaged in any way and the Danish driver was able to get back on track.

After a few minutes of some active driving, however, Valtteri Bottas retired his Alfa Romeo due to technical problems, very likely related to the recuperation system and, consequently, the power unit.

The race directorate therefore resorted to red flags for the fourth time and the stoppage of qualifying. The same scenario repeated itself a few minutes later when Lando Norris in the McLaren spun in the Aqua Minerali corner.

After that, however, qualifying was prematurely terminated by the head office and the standings were once again decided by the opening minutes. Pole position was therefore awarded to Max Verstappen after a rather strange qualifying session, followed by Charles Leclerc and Norris will start Saturday’s sprint in third.

Fourth in the final standings is Magnussen, fifth is Fernando Alonso and sixth is Daniel Ricciardo. The number seven position belongs to Sergio Pérez, eighth place was captured by Bottas, ninth went to Sebastian Vettel and, as we wrote above, the elite ten was closed by Sainz.

All five lights for the sprint race will go out at 16:30, with forecasts suggesting that it should not rain in Imola for the rest of the race weekend.

Source: F1 TV