Lewis Hamilton clinched pole for 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix following a dramatic Saturday at Imola Circuit, as several drivers suffered deletions of lap times across Practice and Qualifying.
Hamilton survived a dramatic qualifying hour to claim pole position by just 0.035 seconds from Sergio Perez, as title rivals – Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas qualified third and eighth on the grid.
Further back, Williams enjoyed a rare but impressively strong Saturday as we bring a full roundup of FP3 and Qualifying.
FP3
Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen was first driver out on track but saw his first lap time deleted for exceeding track limits, before eventually posting a legal benchmark of 1m 17.331 as Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin also saw their first lap times deleted.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc went top with a 1m 17.321 after 18 minutes before improving to a 1m 16.795 to lead teammate, Carlos Sainz by 0.106s as several other drivers saw their lap times deleted for exceeding track limits at Acque Minerali.
Perez soon afterwards proceeded to go top with a 1m 16.642 as Leclerc had a 1m 16.332 deleted, before Bottas went quickest on a 1m 16.402 just moments prior to a crash for Nicholas Latifi at Variante Villeneuve to trigger a brief red flag as he slowly recovered to the pits.
Bottas’ effort however was deleted for exceeding track limits with Max Verstappen also seeing his first proper lap deleted for the same reason, as Bottas proceeded to go top with a 1m 15.984 on soft tyres.
Qualifying simulations eventually concluded the session with Verstappen proving fastest with a stunning lap time of 1m 14.958, which was 0.456s quicker than McLaren’s Lando Norris and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
Sergio Perez enjoyed a solid session largely focused on setups but was able to put himself fourth at the flag ahead of Ferrari’s Leclerc and Sainz, who finished fifth and seventh as AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly found himself sixth quickest but on medium tyres.
Yesterday’s pacesetter, Valtteri Bottas was eighth quickest ahead of Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon who rounded out the top ten.
Alfa Romeo endured a tough end to their session as Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi both had off-track moments, with the former running wide through Rivazza whilst Giovinazzi had a spin but recovered to the pits under his own power.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 14.958 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.456 |
| 3 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.557 |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.593 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.780 |
| 6 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 0.932 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.950 |
| 8 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | + 0.950 |
| 9 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 1.228 |
| 10 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 1.270 |
| 11 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | + 1.272 |
| 12 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.287 |
| 13 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 1.295 |
| 14 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 1.431 |
| 15 | George Russell | Williams | + 1.469 |
| 16 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 1.490 |
| 17 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 1.579 |
| 18 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 1.654 |
| 19 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | + 1.845 |
| 20 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 2.440 |
Qualifying
Q1
Mick Schumacher was first driver on track but the session was red flagged after six minutes, as AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda locked his rear tyres through Variante Alta but failed to recover his car as it spun backwards into the barriers.
Q1 resumed nine minutes later with several drivers completing their first fliers as Bottas went quickest with a 1m 14.926 ahead of Hamilton, as Schumacher, George Russell, Latifi and Nikita Mazepin joined the eliminated Tsunoda in the bottom five.
Russell and Latifi however escaped Q1 elimination as Alfa Romeo’s Raikkonen and Giovinazzi were knocked out in 16 and 17th positions, ahead of Schumacher, Mazepin and Tsunoda who round out the Q1 exits.
Q2
Q2 saw a mixture of strategies as Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen opted for medium tyres, which they will start Sunday’s race on.
Norris found himself topped after the opening Q2 fliers with 1m 14.718 as Russell sat 10th ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Alonso, Ocon, Latifi and Sebastian Vettel, with the Williams driver having posted a medium tyre lap on his first run.
Eventually, Russell failed to sneak into Q3 despite switching to the soft tyre as he found himself 12th quickest and just 0.062s behind a shock Q2 casualty in Carlos Sainz.
Vettel, Latifi and Alonso also found themselves knocked out and will take up 13th 14th and 15th positions on the grid.
Perez unexpectedly topped the session by 0.002s from Norris with a 1m 14.716.
Q3
Lance Stroll was first on track but his early benchmark time of 1m 16.791 was deleted for exceeding track limits, as Norris posted a 1m 14.875 only for Perez to better his time by 0.210s.
Verstappen quickly displaced his teammate with a 1m 14.502 but Hamilton found more time to set the eventual pole time of 1m 14.411, having proceeded to fail to improve on his final flier as he took his 99th pole position in F1.
Perez meanwhile found time to put his Red Bull just 0.035s off Hamilton as Verstappen had to settle for third alongside Leclerc with Gasly rounding out the top five ahead of Ricciardo.
Lando Norris had to settle for seventh after initially going second on his final run with a 1m 14.454 which was deleted after he exceeded track limits.
Bottas failed to improve on his final run and will start eighth ahead of Ocon and Stroll who complete the top ten grid positions.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1m 14.411 |
| 2 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.035 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.087 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.329 |
| 5 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | + 0.379 |
| 6 | Daniel Ricciardo | McLaren | + 0.415 |
| 7 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.464 |
| 8 | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | + 0.487 |
| 9 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.799 |
| 10 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | No Time Set |
| 11 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1m 15.199 |
| 12 | George Russell | Williams | + 0.062 |
| 13 | Sebastian Vettel | Aston Martin | + 0.195 |
| 14 | Nicholas Latifi | Williams | + 0.394 |
| 15 | Fernando Alonso | Alpine | + 0.394 |
| 16 | Kimi Raikkonen | Alfa Romeo | 1m 15.974 |
| 17 | Antonio Giovinazzi | Alfa Romeo | + 0.148 |
| 18 | Mick Schumacher | Haas | + 0.305 |
| 19 | Nikita Mazepin | Haas | + 0.823 |
| 20 | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | Crash |
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