Hamilton held on to take his 99th career pole despite not improving on his final flying lap, with his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas qualifying down in eighth, on spot ahead of Lando Norris, who lost a time that would have put him third due to a track limits violation. Both Mercedes cars and Verstappen will start the race on the advantageous medium tyres after successfully getting through on the yellow-walled rubber, which offers significantly better durability compared to the softs. Hamilton led the way after the first runs in Q3 with a 1m14.411s, but could not recover time lost in the first sector on his second effort. This meant he did not improve the pole benchmark, despite setting the fastest time in the final sector, but as his rivals did not improve by enough he held on to claim his first pole of the 2021 season. Perez outqualified Verstappen in his second event for Red Bull, ending up just under 0.1s adrift of Hamilton's fastest time. But the Mexican driver … [Read more...] about Emilia Romagna GP: Hamilton beats Perez, Verstappen to pole
Tsunoda got “too excited” before Imola qualifying crash
Following his impressive showing on debut in Bahrain three weeks ago, Tsunoda arrived at Imola hopeful of challenging for a second haul of points and a maiden Q3 appearance. But the Japanese driver lost the rear of his AT02 car at the exit of the Variante Alta chicane, causing him to spin backwards into the wall. It left his car with significant damage and brought out a red flag, as well as resigning Tsunoda to last place on the grid for tomorrow's race without setting a time in qualifying. "I was just pushing too much at entry, to be honest," Tsunoda explained. "Until then the lap felt great, actually. I think that potentially it was easy to go through Q1 with one tyre. "I was just too excited. For me, that was a silly mistake, so I feel really sorry for the team. You have to reset today, and just drive the race tomorrow." Read Also: Emilia Romagna GP: Hamilton beats Perez, Verstappen to pole Grand Prix qualifying results: Hamilton takes pole in Imola F1 … [Read more...] about Tsunoda got “too excited” before Imola qualifying crash
Perez: Last-corner mistake cost me Imola F1 pole
Perez bounced back from a difficult Friday that saw him crash into Esteban Ocon in FP1 and struggle to feature with the frontrunners in FP2 by qualifying second at Imola. It marked Perez’s best-ever F1 qualifying result, beating his previous best starting position of third, as he fell just 0.035 seconds shy of pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton’s lap time. But Perez believed he did have the pace to snatch pole position away for Red Bull in the dying moments of qualifying after Hamilton failed to improve on his final lap. “I should have been on pole today," Perez said. “I did a mistake on my final corner, so I think it's everything positive. “We just have to make sure that we keep progressing, and tomorrow is what matters." Perez was satisfied with how he managed to recover from the incident on Friday with Ocon, and admitted he was surprised by the turnaround over the weekend. “I have to say well done to the team," Perez said. “Yesterday I made a mistake and I made … [Read more...] about Perez: Last-corner mistake cost me Imola F1 pole
Tasmania Supercars: Waters completes practice sweep
The Tickford Racing driver was one of the early pace-setters in the half-hour session, jumping to the top at the 10-minute mark with a 50.969s. He was then shuffled down the orders as others improved, the likes of Chaz Mostert, Jack Le Brocq and Anton De Pasquale all enjoying stints on top. De Pasquale looked to have sealed up top spot with his late effort, only for Waters, who started his last lap just seconds before the flag came out, to pip him by 0.02s. "It's a pretty good start to the weekend," said Waters, who also topped this morning's first session . "In saying that it's only practice and everyone is on different plans. We won't get too carried away, we've got to make the car a bit nicer yet. But a really good start." Shane van Gisbergen ended up third fastest ahead of Le Brocq, while Chaz Mostert was fifth despite being just a tenth off Waters. The Top 10 was separated by just over two-tenths, Mark Winterbottom leading Scott Pye, Will Davison, … [Read more...] about Tasmania Supercars: Waters completes practice sweep
Hamilton never expected to beat Red Bulls in Imola qualifying
With Red Bull having had the pace advantage in Bahrain, and topping final free practice at Imola, Hamilton was bracing himself for losing out to either Max Verstappen or Sergio Perez. However, a great performance from the world champion, allied to mistakes from both Red Bull drivers on their final Q3 laps, meant Hamilton took the top spot on Saturday. Hamilton ended up just 0.035 seconds ahead of Perez, and 0.087 seconds clear of Verstappen. Speaking after the session, Hamilton said that there were times this weekend where Mercedes felt that Red Bull had an advantage that was more than half a second per lap. "I definitely didn't expect us to be ahead of two Red Bulls," said Hamilton. "They have been so quick this weekend. There were times where they were six tenths ahead, and we didn't really know where we would be. "But the car was already feeling a lot better from the beginning this weekend. So I have a huge amount of respect to the team for the hard work to really … [Read more...] about Hamilton never expected to beat Red Bulls in Imola qualifying