Valtteri Bottas was able to take pole position away from Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton on his last run when the Finn edged in front of Hamilton by just under a tenth.
Bottas found himself on the back foot coming into the final run despite having two purple sectors on his previous lap. The 31-year old was able to pounce on a poor final run by Hamilton who only slightly improved. Bottas was quicker than Hamilton in both sector one and two having enough in hand come sector three despite Hamilton’s purple sector.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was only good enough for third place today having finished just half a second off pole position. Verstappen had issues of his own in Q2 after the team had to change a spark plug in the car which left him with limited time to be able to get through into Q3.
Pierre Gasly, who recently signed a new contract with AlphaTauri, was able to place his car in fourth position picking up from where he left off in Portugal. Teammate Daniil Kvyat, whose future is still uncertain, found himself in Q3 for the first time this season lining up eighth, two rows behind Gasly.
Daniel Ricciardo and the second Red Bull of Alexander Albon will share the third row on the grid tomorrow, Albon who continues to fight for his Red Bull seat had several laps deleted throughout qualifying for track limits infringements.
Charles Leclerc was seventh-fastest for Ferrari ahead of AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat and the two Mclaren’s of Lando Norris who pipped teammate Carlos Sainz to ninth as the duo share the fifth row.
Sergio Perez missed out on a Q3 appearance by only 0.010s, though the Mexican will have free tyre choice tomorrow from 11th place.
12th place was occupied by Esteban Ocon who was not able to match teammate Daniel Ricciardo as he opted to go out slightly earlier than the rest of the field in the bid to find some free space on the track.
George Russell continued his run of stunning Saturday performances to take 13th in the Williams. Sebastian Vettel’s struggles at Ferrari continued as the four-time world champion found his final lap deleted for track limits which relegated him from 13th to 14th.
Lance Stroll who is struggling to get back to grips with the Racing Point car found himself in 15th after a scrappy Q2 display which saw him lose his fastest lap to track limits infringements.
Romain Grosjean missed out on a place in Q2 by just 0.096s as Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen failed to improve on his final lap as he pushed the limits at the final chicane entering the gravel trap on the outside.
Kimi Raikkonen, the only driver in the field to have previously raced at Imola in Formula 1 found his lap deleted for track infringements as the Finn expressed his anger on the radio regarding the change to the track limits before qualifying.
Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and the second Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi rounded off the grid ahead of tomorrow’s Emili Romagna Grand Prix.”
By Cameron Anderson-Jones
