Gran Premio Emilia-Romagna – Qualifying – Hamilton takes the throne, Red Bull in ambush
The second pole position of the season went to Hamilton with a lap of 1:14.411, ahead of Perez at just +0.035s and Verstappen, 3rd at +0.092s. Bad operation for Tsunoda and Sainz.

Never first Hamilton is at the decisive moment with a new pole position for the Englishman and a lap in 1:14.411 ahead of Perez and Verstappen. These 3 drivers are within less than a tenth of a second!
Q3: Hamilton achieves the perfect lap, Red Bull touches perfection.
The decisive phase of these qualifications was launched by Norris, who was the first on track and clocked a 1:15.875 more than one second faster than his teammate! The Red Bulls and Hamilton did better, but Verstappen is less than a tenth behind the Briton! Leclerc in 5th is in the same tenth as Bottas in 6th ahead of Gasly, Ocon, Ricciardo, and Stroll who did not set a time after an error in his first lap.
On the final lap, Hamilton does not improve his time so Perez moves ahead of Verstappen. Despite a fantastic start to the lap and setting the first two sectors in purple, Norris’ lap was invalidated and he will start 7th behind his teammate, a real disappointment for the young driver.
Great improvement for Leclerc and Gasly who fought for 4th place. Bottas was invisible in this Q3 with ultimately the 8th fastest time ahead of Ocon and Stroll whose lap was cancelled for the second time.
Q2: Sainz does not pass
The Mercedes, Williams, and Verstappen are the only ones to have opted for the medium tires.
In the first relay Norris sets the best time in the same hundredth as Hamilton in second place. Ricciardo is pushed back to 11th place by almost a second compared to his young teammate. Verstappen completes the top 3 ahead of Leclerc, Bottas, and Perez.
Russell’s medium tire strategy puts him in 10th place, the last qualifier, while the Alpine cars are in danger before the start of the final lap.
Everyone put on the soft tires, whether to set a time or to bed them in for Q3.
Perez takes the lead by 2 thousandths of a second ahead of Norris who did not go out. Verstappen, Hamilton, and Bottas have started their lap to preserve a set of tyres. On a bad lap, Alonso can only manage 15th place behind Latifi’s Williams. Vettel will start behind Russell but the surprise comes from Sainz.
Slipping on his turn, he couldn’t do better than 11th place while Leclerc is 3rd. He will be the first driver to choose his type of tire for the race.
Eliminated from Q2:
Sainz
Russell
Vettel
Latifi
Alonso
Q1: Red flag for Tsunoda
It is under cooler temperatures than expected that the 20 drivers set off for this first part of qualifying. Alone on the track, the Haas drivers were the first to complete a lap. Schumacher was one second faster than his teammate before the rest of the drivers went out.
Red flag out for Tsunoda! On his first lap, the Japanese driver went off at turn 12. Despite a small impact, the back of his car is destroyed with the gearbox open on track.
At the restart, Bottas sets the fastest time ahead of an excellent Norris by less than a tenth! Verstappen follows ahead of Hamilton, Leclerc, and Ocon. Perez and Gasly had their lap times canceled for exceeding track limits.
The battle for Q2 will be between Haas, Williams, and Alfa Romeo as Tsunoda will start at the back of the grid. Excellent lap from Latifi who, in the last seconds, pulled out the perfect lap to climb up to 11th place! Russell takes 14th position. It was the Alfa Romeo team who suffered at the end of Q1, while Giovinazzi was hindered on his final lap by Mazepin.
Eliminated from Q1:
Räikkönen
Giovinazzi
Schumacher
Mazepin
Tsunoda
Qualifying rankings:
N° | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Hamilton | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1.14:411 | |||
2 | Perez | Red Bull Racing | 1:14.716 | 1:14.446 | 18 | |
3 | Verstappen | Red Bull Racing | 1:14.498 | 20 | ||
4 | Leclerc | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:14.740 | 19 | ||
5 | Gasly | Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda | 1:14.790 | 21 | ||
6 | Ricciardo | McLaren F1 Team | 1:14.826 | 21 | ||
7 | Norris | McLaren F1 Team | 1:14.875 | 15 | ||
8 | Bottas | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport | 1:14.672 | 1:14.898 | 21 | |
9 | Ocon | Alpine F1 Team | 1:15.210 | 20 | ||
10 | Stroll | Cognizant Aston Martin Racing | Laps annulés | 20 | ||
11 | Sainz Jr. | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:15.199 | 16 | ||
12 | Russell | Williams Racing | 1:15.261 | 16 | ||
13 | Vettel | Cognizant Aston Martin Racing | 1:15.394 | 14 | ||
14 | Latifi | Williams Racing | 1:15.593 | 14 | ||
15 | Alonso | Alpine F1 Team | 1:15.593 | 14 | ||
16 | Räikkönen | Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN | 1:15.974 | 10 | ||
17 | Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN | 1:16.122 | 9 | ||
18 | Schumacher | Haas F1 Team | 1:16.279 | 12 | ||
19 | Mazepin | Haas F1 Team | 1:16.797 | 12 | ||
20 | Tsunoda | Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda | DNF | 2 |