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Formula 1
Emilia Romagna GP
F1 Emilia Romagna GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP2 and Sprint
Saturday's action from Imola, including the F1 sprint race
Charles Leclerc leads the early F1 drivers’ world championship by 34 points from Mercedes’ George Russell, following his dominant victory at the Australian GP last time out.
Max Verstappen will start the sprint race from pole position after topping a wet qualifying at Imola on Friday afternoon ahead of Leclerc.
Final practice for the Emilia Romagna GP gets underway at 11.30am BST (12.30pm local time), followed by the sprint race which starts at 3.30pm BST (4.30pm local time).
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The Mercedes twins have made no progress after being knocked out in Q2. Russell has lost out to Schumacher, and runs P12, while Hamilton has fallen behind Tsunoda and Stroll to 15th from his 13th position on the grid.
That was a textbook restart from Leclerc, who has over a second in hand on Verstappen at the end of lap five. Norris in third is 2.8 seconds back, while Magnussen has been given a black-and-white flag for weaving on the straight to keep Perez behind him.
We're back to green now after four slow laps behind the safety car. Alonso has a big moment exiting Tamburello which invites pressure on his seventh place from Sainz, but the Ferrari man can't get the move done into the Villeneuve chicane.
Almost unnoticed amid the drama, Sainz also moved forwards at the start. From tenth, the Spaniard has climbed up to eighth, passing Vettel and Bottas - the Alfa Romeo losing two positions to fall back to tenth.
"I've been hit," Zhou reported over the radio as he clattered the wall. In fairness, not really sure where Gasly could have gone there. A low percentage move from the Alfa Romeo driver, if an understandable one on the first lap.
The safety car will help the soft-shod runners here, allowing them to eke out their tyre life. Magnussen, having crucially held position at the start, will be eager for the race to get underway so that his more durable compound will come into his favour later on.
Magnussen got a great run in the slipstream behind Norris and tried to go to his outside but quickly realised that wasn't going to work and ended up coming under attack from Perez and Ricciardo - the McLaren driver getting a touch on his left-rear that sent him into Magnussen's sidepod. All escape unscathed though.
At the start, Verstappen seemed to bog down in the second phase of his launch, allowing Leclerc to dart ahead on the run to the first corner.
Replays show Zhou tried to muscle past Gasly around the outside of the fast Piratella right-hander, resulting in contact as the AlphaTauri driver washed out wide. The result is a right-front puncture for the Frenchman, who duly pits for a replacement, while Zhou spun into the wall on the left-hand side and retires with significant damage.
Safety car
Oh dear, Zhou Guanyu has crashed to bring out the safety car.
Leclerc makes the best start and he leads Verstappen and Norris into Tamburello as the pack go three-wide behind them, Magnussen just emerging ahead after a tyre rub with Ricciardo. The McLaren's loss of momentum allows Perez through into fifth.
Green flag
It's a long run down to the first corner at Imola. Are we ready for fireworks? We're go in Imola!
The drivers now line up on the grid, Verstappen desperately trying to back up the pack to reduce his waiting time at the front.
The formation lap is underway. Not long now until the Emilia Romagna sprint race is green.
The tyre blankets are off - everybody is starting on soft tyres with the exception of Haas pair Magnussen (fourth), Schumacher (12th) and Latifi (18th). All are on mediums.
Since Imola returned to the calendar under the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix name in 2020, no driver has won the event more than once - with Lewis Hamilton (2020) and Max Verstappen (2021) splitting honours. Could we have another new winner this year?
Ferrari prevailed at Imola the last time F1 staged the San Marino Grand Prix - the event having been called the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix for its past three editions - in 2006, when Michael Schumacher headed Fernando Alonso. Schumacher won seven times at Imola in total - not a bad record at all.
There are plenty of tifosi in the grandstands today hoping to see Leclerc overturn his qualifying defeat to Verstappen and secure first on the grid for tomorrow. Whatever happens today though, credit for pole position will go to Verstappen - another tweak in the rules for 2022.
Teams are busy on the grid completing last minute checks over their cars, with the start just a few minutes away. Intriguingly, we're being told that the risk of rain is 40%...
Imola is the first of three sprint races to be held this year - but F1 had planned to increase the number of races to six before plans stumbled over the costs involved. The Red Bull Ring and Interlagos (the only venue to retain a sprint race) will also host the bonus races, after Silverstone and Monza gave the format a premiere last season.
We've got all the ingredients then for a thrilling sprint race - which will be held to a distance of 21 laps. New for this year is the number of points up for grabs. Only three were afforded to the winner last year, with the top three alone scoring points. Now the sprint winner will get eight points, with the top eight scoring points.
But of course, we haven't mentioned Mercedes yet. That's because George Russell (11th) and Lewis Hamilton (13th) both missed the cut for Q3 - the first time that's happened to the Brackley team since Japan 2012, an unprecedented feat in the turbo hybrid era. On a brighter note though, it was Russell who topped FP2 earlier ahead of Perez and Leclerc.
It's been a miserable season so far for Aston Martin, the only team yet to score thus far, but Sebastian Vettel brought a few smiles to the team by reaching Q3 and will start ninth - ahead of Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari, the Spaniard causing a red flag in Q2 when he crashed exiting the second Rivazza leading onto the long start-finish straight. He'll have work to do from there.
The second Red Bull of Sergio Perez was only seventh quickest in Q3 and shuffled onto the fourth row behind Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and Daniel Ricciardo in the second McLaren, while Valtteri Bottas - in a new chassis thanks to exhaust damage in qualifying - will start eighth.
Lining up behind them are two drivers who caused red flags in Q3 yesterday with trips off the road at Acque Minerali. Lando Norris, who finished on the podium here last year and seems to like Imola, is joined by Kevin Magnussen, who recovered from his off to record the Haas team's best-ever qualifying result.
We've got a fairly jumbled grid for the first of this year's three sprint races, courtesy of rain and multiple red flags in yesterday's qualifying session. But the front row subscribes to the trend we've seen in 2022, with Max Verstappen joined by Charles Leclerc - the defending champion scoring the first pole of his title defence.
Welcome back to Autosport's Live coverage as we build up to the sprint race in a little over 20 minutes. Hope you've had a good afternoon so far - and thank you for joining us.
Checkered flag
There's a little under three hours until the sprint, so we'll take a short breather ahead of the build-up to this afternoon's action. Until then, go well!
Breaking news
Here's the full report on final practice:
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-emilia-romagna-gp-fp2/10145803/
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-emilia-romagna-gp-fp2/10145803/
So, that's your lot for practice, full speed ahead to the first sprint race of 2022 which gets underway at 3.30pm BST.
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McLaren has clocked a combined total of six laps in this session, all from Norris, with Ricciardo unable to get out due to his mechanical issue. Bottas also failed to complete a lap for Alfa Romeo because of his issue.
Checkered flag
The chequered flag is out - Russell tops FP2 for Mercedes from Perez and Leclerc.
Norris is in the cockpit of his McLaren to head out with 30s to go to check over his car ahead of the sprint race.
Magnussen has gone off track at Acque Minerali but has been able to continue without too much trouble. Sainz does the same, this time at Variante Alta, to provide a small slice of jeopardy in these closing minutes.
Five minutes to go in this session and Russell remains at the top of the times, which unless anyone goes for an unnecessary glory run it will remain that way.
Adding to that, Alonso has just set the fastest first sector time of any driver today. He's got pace in that Alpine.
Alonso has also had a decent practice session and is fifth overall for Alpine. He'll be one to watch in the sprint, starting from fifth, and set to target Norris and Magnussen starting directly ahead of him.
Stopwatch
Perez, also on the mediums, moves up to second place with a 1m19.538s. It has been a very impressive session by the Mexican driver so far.
Sainz, on the mediums, has moved up to sixth overall 0.9s off Russell's leading effort.
By: autosport.com
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