Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position ahead of Mexican Sergio Perez in hotly contested Emilia Romagna Grand Prix qualifying session.
Despite failing to improve on his final lap, a mouthwatering banker ensured that Hamilton beat Perez by 0.035s as he set a 1:14.411 claiming his 99th career pole position in Formula 1.
Perez started to build some momentum throughout the weekend but no one thought he would have pipped teammate Max Verstappen, an improvement on his final run demoted the Dutchman to the second row of the grid.
The 23-year-old was not happy with his final effort as he dipped a tyre onto the grass which prevented the Red Bull driver from getting on the front row.
Only last year Valterri Bottas claimed pole position for the Grand Prix, it was far from the same story today as he had a dismal afternoon as he finished in eighth. The Finn set a quicker lap time in Q1 compared to his final Q3 effort under an hour later.
Charles Leclerc was best of the rest as he secured fourth ahead of tomorrow’s Grand Prix, while Pierre Gasly had a quiet but impressive afternoon as he looks to make up for the team’s retirement in Bahrain.
The two McLaren’s followed as Daniel Ricciardo somehow out qualified Lando Norris despite looking behind the Brit all weekend. Norris had his final lap deleted after a track limits infringement, the 21-year old would have been third on the grid after accumulating two purple sectors.
Behind Bottas came Esteban Ocon in ninth as he beat teammate Fernando Alonso for the first time this year, Lance Stroll rounded out the top 10 as he made it two out of two when it comes to Q3 appearances for the year.
Carlos Sainz disappointed for Ferrari today as he failed to match the pace of teammate Leclerc, although the Spaniard will have the first pick at free tyre choice ahead of the lights out tomorrow.
‘Mr Saturday’ also known as George Russell finished in 12th today even though he has not been happy with the balance throughout the weekend, Sebastian Vettel followed in 13th for Aston Martin.
Nicholas Latifi got through to Q2 as he qualified 14th in what was an impressive day’s work from the Canadian, he looked at home in the car as he secured his best qualifying position since joining Williams.
Two-time world champion Alonso struggled all weekend, teammate Ocon has been able to extract far more pace from this upgraded Alpine car, I’m sure he will be keen to forget this afternoon result ahead of race day.
This was the first time that Alonso had been out-qualified by a teammate since the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix.
Kimi Raikkonen beat teammate Antonio Giovinazzi as the pair were both eliminated in Q1, the two Haas car’s followed next as Mick Schumacher beat Nikita Mazepin who was half a second behind the German.
Rookie Yuki Tsunoda had a session to forget as he binned his AlphaTauri under five minutes from leaving the garage, the Japanese driver failed to catch a slide at Turn 14 and 15 before making heavy contact with the wall.
The 20-year-old emerged unscathed but the same could not be said for his car, which was left wrecked by the impact that ripped open the rear-end of his AlphaTauri.
