Imola Quali: Max Pole, Charles P2
Max Verstappen takes the Pole Position in a rain soaked Quali session at Imola. Charles LeClerc manages to get P2. Carlos spins his car and couldn’t compete in Q3, ending up at P10
Lucky Max at Imola
RedBull has been having reliability issues in the 2022 season with 2 DNFs in the last three races for Max. However they have competitive pace, on par with the Ferraris. Here at Imola though they couldn’t match the pace of Ferrari in the FP1 session. Still Max managed to eke out a Pole as Charles couldn’t do his final lap thanks to Norris spinning his car. As Imola is a sprint format Max would like to make the most of the Sprint and the main Race to cover the huge deficit between him and Charles LeClerc.
Mighty Ferrari at Imola
Ferrari seem to continue their good form in Imola too, kind of their home race. Both Charles and Carlos showed good pace in the Practice sessions. However things did not go well in the Quali sessions. With the rain playing hide and seek all through the session it was difficult to get a good lap down. The conditions were changing very rapidly. In Q2 Carlos put in a decent first lap but then as he was prepping for the second one, he spun his car and found himself in the gravel. This ended his Quali session but would still start from P10.
Charles had a good session and stayed out of trouble. He seemed to be destined for Pole but then Norris spun and thus couldn’t do his final lap. Charles would still be happy with the P2 position. Staying on the front row and with Sprint in between he would certainly fancy winning the main race.
McLaren putting up a good show
Lando Norris got a surprise P3 although it would be difficult to maintain this position in the Sprint and the Main Race. Even Danny Ric managed to put a good show and he will be starting P6.
More surprising was the HAAS of Kevin Magnussen in P4, their best ever qualifying position. It would be incredible if K-Mag could hold his position.
Two time World Champion Fernando Alonso managed P5. His team-mate Ocon had a Gearbox issue and couldn’t come out of Q1. Sergio Perez in the other RedBull couldn’t stitch together a good lap and thus will be starting P7. Valtteri Bottas had some technical trouble in Q3 but still managed to put his car in P8. Vettel surprisingly was P9 in his lackluster Aston Martin.
It was absolutely shocking to see Mercedes struggling to get out of Q3. Oh how the mighty have fallen. This is the first time since Japan 2012 that neither of the Mercs have qualified to Q3. They have a lot of work to do in the 2022 season. Similarly Alpha Tauri would be disappointed as both their cars failed to get out of Q1. The Williams of Alex Albon caught fire and he will be starting from P20. Latifi also couldn’t do much.
Imola Quali Starting Grid: Max on Pole
