[ad_1]
Valtteri Bottas (31) snatches the pole of Imola from his teammate Lewis Hamilton (35) in the last second, starts on Sunday at the Emilia Romagna GP (starting at 1:10 pm on the live BLICK ticker!) , The 13th round of the World Championship and the penultimate in Europe from the front row. For the tenth time this season, both Silver Arrows are in the front row.
With Hamilton already looking forward to his 98th pole position, Bottas beats him in the qualifying final by 0.097 seconds. With this, the Finn shortened the pole duel between the two Mercedes stars to 4: 9. As is often the case, third place went to Max Verstappen at Red Bull alongside once strong Monza winner Pierre Gasly at the Alpha Tauri.
Bottas: “There is a long way to the first corner”
Bottas after qualifying: “It’s never easy to get pole. I like this route. On the last lap I found exactly the little things that were necessary. Shift 2, 3 Today I really had to work. The last curves too. But I took a little risk on the last lap and the car was going very well there. The road to the first corner is long. It will not be an easy start. “
Lewis: “This is going to be boring”
Meanwhile, Hamilton explains: “My lap was quite uneven. Happens. You cannot be perfect every day. Red Bull was very strong in the long run. The route is beautiful. But I’m pretty sure the race will be boring because you have nowhere to overtake. “
Max: “A closer fight was expected”
Verstappen, third place: «I did not have a good classification. With my technical problem, it was a bit difficult. I didn’t have much grip on the first lap of Q3. The second was better then. P3 is not bad, but I was expecting a closer fight. “
Max is fighting with a spark plug
Max struggled with a faulty spark plug in Q2, cursed on the pit radio, but made it to Q3 on medium tires and finally P3. The Bulls will continue to celebrate on Saturday: Swiss reserve driver Sébastien Buemi celebrates his 32nd birthday. Happy birthday, Sébastien!
Monza winner Gasly, however, shows again what he can do with P4. The Frenchman, who races at Imola in a special helmet with Ayrton Senna’s design, still sees himself as a regular Red Bull rider, but the police clearly say it belongs to Alpha Tauri. After all, you want to keep pushing the clothing brand.
Alpha-Sauber and the curse of Saturday
With the Hinwilers, meanwhile, the old song you hardly hear anymore: Saturday you lose everything. After the announcement of the new duo of old drivers, Kimi Räikkönen landed in 18th place, Antonio Giovinazzi in 20th and last place. On Sunday things should always go better, you want to try everything and with a little luck you can score.
It’s amazing that the Kimi / Giovinazzi duo are entering the World Championship race in 2021. There are also voices from Hinwil who are shocked. Some would have liked to see new faces.
Hinwil’s frustration would be even greater if the two Haasen Grosjean and Magnussen, who had been sent off at the end of the season, turned the 3: 5 deficit with Alpha-Sauber in their favor.
Kimi was the only one in Imola in 2006
The 100th Formula 1 GP on Italian soil since the start of the World Cup 70 years ago will take place in Imola on Sunday. The last race at the site of Ayrton Senna’s death on May 1, 1994 took place in 2006, as the San Marino GP. Back then, on April 23, Michael Schumacher won ahead of Fernando Alonso and Juan Pablo Montoya. Fourth place went to Felipe Massa … Kimi Räikkönen! The “Iceman”, who was still in the McLaren-Mercedes, is the only driver to have participated in a race at Imola.
Ferrari disappoints in home race
Well, meanwhile Ferrari disappoints in qualifying for the home race. Most of all, of course, Sebastian Vettel, who only made it to 14th place, right next to George Russell at the Williams, who was still scoring in 34 runs. Vettel: “The car worked fine again this time, but the speed was not there.” The old record … The last time there was a showdown in Portugal between the two former teammates Vettel and Räikkönen for the final point of the World Cup. Vettel’s Monegasque teammate Charles Leclerc pulls everything out of the red goddess in Imola, at least finishing seventh, so you won’t be able to uproot trees. On the contrary: Alpha Tauri (77 points) is only 13 points behind the Red Scuderia (90 points). So it means: watch out!
Mercedes: 103 victories in 211 races
For Mercedes, on the other hand, it will be the 211st race since returning to Formula 1 in 2010. And the first three years with Schumi and Nico Rosberg weren’t the most optimistic. In the 211 races there were 116 poles for the Silver Arrows. You were in the front row 202 times. 72 times you were first and second in training. 103 GP victories were obtained. And on Sunday, boss Toto Wolff’s team will take the constructors’ title.
9 and 15 years cause emotion
The thrill of qualifying, however, is Turns 9 (Piratella) and 15 (Rivazza) of the “Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari”. Because the cars cannot cross the white line, 60 laps are canceled in the morning, and another 24 canceled laps are added in the afternoon! You wonder: Can’t you build it differently? Because there is also a huge accounting theater, as each canceled round requires a report …
Click here to see the GP Emilia Romagna starting grid!
Frédéric Vasseur: “Knowing that you are doing a lap that is good for 13th place only to have it canceled is very frustrating. But it is what it is. The potential of the car is there and today was clearly one of those days where nothing worked for us and you can’t do what you can. Of all the tracks, this is the worst to start from behind. We will need something special, especially at the beginning of the race, to achieve something. But we will give it our all! “
Kimi Raikkonen (18th place): “The car was much better than in the morning and it felt quite good. We would have reached Q2 with our fastest lap. But unfortunately it was removed. What happened is disappointing. Especially since this seems to be a track where the field is very close. But complaining no longer changes the outcome. The race won’t be easy when you see where we start. But we have to do what we can and see where we end up. “
Antonio Giovinazzi (Platz 20): “The potential of our car would have been enough for a much better result. But we couldn’t do a clean lap. The first lap was good and we looked very good. But on my two push laps, the traffic stopped me. We knew this was going to be a problem here, but it’s frustrating. Starting last, of course, is not ideal. But from there we can only move on. We will do our best. Overtaking will not be easy, so we need a good start and a good strategy to catch up. “
