Emilia-Romagna GP: Lewis Hamilton leads the only practice session at Imola

Qualifying begins at 1:00 pm live on Sky Sports F1, with preparation starting at noon. Sunday’s race is at 12:10 pm; F1 takes place just two days in Imola, and Saturday morning is the only practice session.

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Sky F1’s Karun Chandhok analyzes the only practice session of the Emilia-Romagna GP.

Lewis Hamilton started the condensed F1 Emilia-Romagna GP weekend faster by setting the pace for Max Verstappen in the only practice session of the weekend before qualifying on Saturday.

F1’s return to historic Imola in Northern Italy after a 14-year absence is running in just two days and the drivers had just 90 minutes of practice to catch up and perfect their car setup for the Rest of the weekend on an unusually busy Saturday morning.

Classification begins at 13:00, with accumulation in Sky Sports F1 from noon. Sunday’s race is at 12.10.

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Renault’s Esteban Ocon had a mishap on the pit line during practice at Imola

Hamilton, who last drove the circuit in 2006 in GP2, took some time to move up the timesheets, but finished with a better time in the session on the soft tires of 1: 14.726.

But, as an initial spur for Red Bull, Max Verstappen split the Mercedes to finish just 0.297 seconds behind the world champion.

Verstappen had led the timesheets for most of the first half of the session and had set his best time on the soft compound before Mercedes, when the track was not as well covered.

Valtteri Bottas, who raced through the gravel in the second Rivazza in his first qualifying simulation, was third, almost half a second behind Hamilton in the sister Mercedes. The Finn has regularly made it through practice sessions before Hamilton this year, including the seven previous P1s, but seems to be catching up here.

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McLaren’s Carlos Sainz heads to the gravel at Turn 18 during practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Pierre Gasly was one of the best performers of the session and the fit Frenchman was ranked fourth by AlphaTauri, whose factory is located 25 minutes from Imola.

Ferrari, the brand’s Italian team, was fifth with Charles Leclerc, but Sebastian Vettel was once again out of the top 10. Despite being one of the oldest F1 drivers, Vettel is one of the few on the grid to I had never driven in Imola before.

Renault was sixth and seventh with Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon respectively, with Daniil Kvyat eighth in the second AlphaTauri.

Meanwhile, heading into the potentially decisive weekend for his future at Red Bull, Alex Albon has work to do for qualifying after being ninth fastest in practice. His difference from his teammate Verstappen was more than a second.