Live text
Formula 1
Emilia Romagna GP
F1 Emilia Romagna GP Live Commentary and Updates - FP1 & Qualifying
All of Friday's F1 action, including qualifying for the Emilia Romagna GP 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.
This weekend marks the first F1 sprint race format of the season, which means qualifying is pushed forward to Friday afternoon and the sprint race takes place on Saturday afternoon.
Opening practice for the Emilia Romagna GP gets underway at 12.30pm BST (1.30pm local time), followed by qualifying which starts at 4pm BST (5pm local time).
Live Standings
presented by
Stopped
Summary
3 Days
00 hrs
42 min
18 sec
Live Text
Sort by
Stopwatch
Ocon has also had an impromptu beach trip, diving into the Rivazza gravel. Meanwhile, Perez goes quickest with a 1m35.476s.
Quote
Sainz reports that intermediate tyres are "not far off, maybe 10 minutes" as Leclerc has a spin at Acque Minerali. There's a bit of a drier line appearing, but Leclerc grabbed the kerb and lost grip.
Off track
Sainz returns to second spot, while Norris had an off-track excursion at Rivazza and came into the pits immediately after.
Stopwatch
That's a 1m35.629s for Leclerc, who returns to the top of the timesheets with 40 minutes left on the clock.
Stopwatch
Sainz, however, does a 1m36.484s to get up to second, as Tsunoda is now currently P3 after nudging Perez down another position.
Stopwatch
Perez gets up to second, as the Red Bulls look very solid in these conditions. Verstappen winds up for a 1m36.158s to extend his advantage at the top.
Magnussen then punches in a 1m38.006s to displace Bottas from third, as there's plenty of personal bests up and down the field.
It's now a 1m38.017s for Bottas to go P2 briefly, before Leclerc now gets into the 1m37s to shuffle the Alfa driver down to third. Sainz, Gasly and Norris also sit in the top six.
Stopwatch
The times are coming down as the circuit improves. Leclerc does a 1m39.235s to go top, but that's beaten comprehensively by Verstappen on a 1m37.247s.
Stopwatch
That's now a 1m40.011s for Magnussen, before Verstappen logs a 1m39.595s to go quickest.
Stopwatch
Leclerc and Magnussen got into the 1m42s, but Bottas posts a 1m40.216s to return to the top.
Leclerc is having a few excursions on his outlap, missing the apex with at Tosa and spinning on the exit of the newly-renamed Fausto Gresini chicane. Latifi also spins into the gravel at Tosa.
The AlphaTauris, Ferraris, Alpines, Red Bulls are all out now as is Stroll, Zhou and Albon.
Stopwatch
Bottas sets our first timed lap, a 1m43.277s.
There's a replay of Mick Schumacher not having enough steering lock to get out of the garage. Big cars and little pitlanes making it tricky.
Kevin Magnussen has also taken to the track, as Bottas finds very little purchase on the road during his exploratory lap.
Cars on track, finally - Valtteri Bottas and Mick Schumacher have emerged onto the road.
Green flag
The session has begun, by the way, but nobody's yet ventured into the gloom.
Umbrellas in full force in the stands, as the fans' spirits are not yet dampened. Unlike the time my drinks cabinet got caught in a flood...(I don't own a drinks cabinet; I lied for a bad pun.)
Our F1 reporter Luke Smith reports that the Imola rain has got lighter, but the drizzle is "persistent". Absolutely splashing news.
With just one practice session before we get into qualifying later this afternoon, the teams will have to make the most of the running today - and the drivers must try to keep the car out of the wall. It'll be a tough one.
With Imola being incredibly wet, the Acque Minerali corner is more of a statement of fact rather than just a name. Nominative determinism at its finest.
Rain
Hello everyone - welcome to our Autosport Live coverage! We're just 15 minutes away from getting going for FP1 at Imola - and it's going to be a damp one.
By: autosport.com
Published:
Page:
