LEWIS HAMILTON TAKES 99TH POLE IN HIS F1 CAREER

Lewis Hamilton grabbed the 99 Pole position of his career by the narrow margin of just over three hundredths of a second in tight qualifying session for the 2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez scored the first front row start of his F1 career. Pérez got closest to dislodging the Mercedes driver but in the end he feel short by 0.035s, later saying that a mistake in the final corner cost him pole. Verstappen’s hopes meanwhile ended in Turn 3 of his lap where a mistake sent him wide. He recovered but had to settle for P3 on the grid alongside Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Six minutes into Q1 AlpahTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda crashed bringing out the red flags. The Japanese rookie got out of shape through the Variante Alta chicane and lost the rear end of his car. He slid backwards into the tyre barriers sustaining heavy damage at the rear of his AlphaTauri AT02.

The session resumed after an almost 10-minute suspension and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Alpine’s Esteban Ocon were quickly to the fire before Verstappen took P1. Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas then moved P1 as Hamilton slotted into P2 and McLaren’s Lando Norris took P3.

At the other end of the order, Alfa Romeo’s Räikkönen was eliminated in P16 ahead of 17th-placed Antonio Giovinazzi, Schumacher, Mazepin and the unfortunate Tsunoda.

McLaren’s Lando Norris set the pace in the opening runs of Q2, with the Briton using soft tyres to claim P1. Behind him, on medium tyres were Hamilton and Verstappen who took P2 and P3 respectively.

Pérez opted for soft tyres on his first run and though he initially looked set to take P1 he came across traffic in the final sector and his time of 1:15.106 was only good enough for fifth behind Bottas. The Mexican then bolted on another set of softs for his final effort and this time he got a clear run to claim P1, two thousandths of a second ahead of Norris. Leclerc also used softs to jump to third place while Hamilton finished fourth ahead of Verstappen.

Eliminated at the end of Q2 were Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. in P11 followed by Williams’ George Russell, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, Nicholas Latifi in the second Williams and Fernando Alonso in Alpine car.

Hamilton laid down a stern marker of 1:14.411 in the opening runs of Q3, the final segment of qualifying but with both Red Bulls in close attendance it looked like the Briton’s claim on the top spot of the grid was far from secure.

But while both Red Bull drivers improved on their final runs neither could find a way past Hamilton’s time and the Briton claimed the 99th pole position of his career, despite making no improvement himself.

Pérez got closest to dislodging the Mercedes driver but in the end he feel short by 0.035s, later saying that a mistake in the final corner cost him pole. Verstappen’s hopes meanwhile ended in Turn 3 of his lap where a mistake sent him wide. He recovered but had to settle for P3 on the grid alongside Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Pierre Gasly grabbed an excellent fifth place on the grid for AlphaTauri. Daniel Ricciardo will start sixth for McLaren, while team-mate Lando Norris will start seventh. The young Briton might have started third had his final lap of Q3 not been deleted for a track limits infringement. Bottas will line up in eight place ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

2021 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Qualifying
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:14.411
2.	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	1:14.446	+ 0.035
3.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:14.498	+ 0.087
4.	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:14.740	+ 0.329
5.	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1:14.790	+ 0.379
6.	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	1:14.826	+ 0.415
7.	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:14.875	+ 0.464
8.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	1:14.898	+ 0.487
9.	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:15.210	+ 0.799
10.	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	/	/
Q2 Fastest Time: Sergio Pérez - 1:14.716
11.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:15.199	+ 0.483
12.	George Russell	Williams	1:15.261	+ 0.545
13.	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	1:15.394	+ 0.678
14.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	1:15.593	+ 0.877
15.	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	1:15.593	+ 0.877
Q1 Fastest Time: Valtteri Bottas - 1:14.672
16.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo	1:15.974	+ 1.302
17.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	1:16.122	+ 1.450
18.	Mick Schumacher	Haas	1:16.279	+ 1.607
19.	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	1:16.797	+ 2.125
20.	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	/	/
107% time: 1:19.899
HYBRID ERA - IMOLA CIRCUIT 2020 Valtteri Bottas - Mercedes AMG - 1:13.609 2021 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:14.411 @MkFormula1 - REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA