Skip to main content

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe
Live text
Formula 1 Emilia Romagna GP

F1 Emilia Romagna GP Live Updates - Saturday practice and qualifying

Live Text

Sort by
We've now had five minutes without a track limits breach. Praise be!
Vettel has just finished his long run with the hards, but he's not the only man using the tyre currently - also evaluating the white-walled compound are Russell and Perez.
Hamilton and Verstappen are both in the pits as Bottas has another go on the softs. Meanwhile, McLaren has got a bit of pace to find as Sainz and Norris currently sit line astern in P13-14.
That improvement from Hamilton means Bottas is once again 0.4s off the pace - albeit still 0.7s clear of Ricciardo, who is the best of the rest in fourth.
Albon had moved up to fourth on a 1m16.061s, moving him ahead of the Racing Point pair, but it doesn't last long as Ricciardo and then Ocon jump ahead of him in the Renaults.
It's another new fastest time, this time from Hamilton who moves to the top on a 1m14.726s. That makes him the first man into the 1m14s bracket.
Having failed to shine on his soft rubber, Vettel is now having a run on the hard tyres, the only man in the field to do so. As a result, he's currently P20 although another track limits deletion won't help his cause.
Hamilton now improves, but only to second, ahead of Bottas, with a 1m15.212s. Behind the ever-changing top three, it's Stroll in fourth place - over a second behind Verstappen, with Perez fifth and Leclerc sixth, all on soft tyres.
As Hamilton comes out for a run on the soft, Bottas moves fastest on his soft tyres with a 1m15.218s - but that's rapidly beaten by Verstappen, with a 1m15.023s.
Sainz briefly moves up to fourth on a 1m15.730s on the soft tyre, but - you guessed it - track limits mean its deleted and he stays P8.
Bottas is now taking his turn for a run on the soft tyres, which he'll hope will allow him to close the 0.4s gap between himself and the cars ahead, Verstappen and Hamilton separated by just 0.008s.
Of course, the other new winner at Imola was Ralf Schumacher back in 2001 - also the first victory for the Williams-BMW combination. A good driver on his day was Schumacher Jr, who went on to win a further 5 GPs before his F1 career slid into oblivion at Toyota.

Of course, the other new winner at Imola was Ralf Schumacher back in 2001 - also the first victory for the Williams-BMW combination. A good driver on his day was Schumacher Jr, who went on to win a further 5 GPs before his F1 career slid into oblivion at Toyota.

Verstappen makes a late call to come into the pits, jinking to the right to avoid the bollard after setting a purple middle sector in his Red Bull. Still, clearly, time to find on his 1m15.338s benchmark.
It should be remembered, of course, that F1's previous visits to Imola still featured the awkward final chicane, which was never much good for passing (ask Damon Hill, who clattered into Shinji Nakano's Prost in 1997) and only ever seemed to produce clumsy spins (ask Michael Andretti, who backed his McLaren into the wall in 1993).
Imola has twice produced a new F1 winner. The first was Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 1997, taking advantage of the last Adrian Newey-designed Williams to beat Ferrari pair Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine. Anybody remember who the second new winner at Imola was?

Imola has twice produced a new F1 winner. The first was Heinz-Harald Frentzen in 1997, taking advantage of the last Adrian Newey-designed Williams to beat Ferrari pair Michael Schumacher and Eddie Irvine. Anybody remember who the second new winner at Imola was?

Hamilton now improves to second on a 1m15.346 - virtually nothing in it between he and Verstappen, as Latifi boxes complaining of a brake-by-wire failure.
Well that didn't last long - Verstappen shoots back to the top on a 1m15.338s, putting him four tenths up on Bottas. To correct our previous update, it's Verstappen on the softs - not Hamilton, the timing screens threw a bit of a wobbly on us there.
Bottas has headed back to the pits after that run on mediums, while Hamilton is trying the softs and has moved up to second on a 1m15.869s.
Leclerc only ninth on the softs so far, while Vettel's best effort to date on the softs was thrown on top of the mounting pile entitled 'track limits'.
Magnussen has had two laps deleted in a row for track limits - that won't help him in his quest to move forward from 17th position.
Raikkonen is joined on the soft tyre by Leclerc and Vettel, Ferrari deviating from the strategy employed by almost everybody else on the medium tyres.
Raikkonen not only knows Imola better than most, he also had one of the circuit's stranger accidents during his rookie season back in 2001 when the steering wheel on his Sauber became detached.

Raikkonen not only knows Imola better than most, he also had one of the circuit's stranger accidents during his rookie season back in 2001 when the steering wheel on his Sauber became detached.

We've got a new man on the top of the timesheets as Bottas launches to P1 on a 1m15.783s, just over a tenth up on Verstappen.
It looks like Raikkonen is the first man to try the softs so far on his Alfa Romeo. Sure enough, he sets a new personal best to move up to P14 on a 1m17.993s.
During this minor lull in the action, why not acquaint yourself with some of the lesser-known feats of brilliance F1 has seen at Imola down the years from the likes of Button, Eric van de Poele and Ayrton Senna (probably the only time those three have ever been grouped together). It even has a picture of a Zakspeed in it. Plus subscribers only.
The great unheralded Imola F1 drives - F1 - Autosport Plus
While we were ogling the BAR, we missed that Verstappen had improved again - up to a 1m15.912s, a full second quicker than anybody else at the moment. Bottas is now out again, and has moved up to P13 as he continues to feel his way around.
A majority of the drivers are now in the pits after completing their first runs, with only Hamilton, Albon, Russell and Latifi currently circulating. Albon briefly moved himself up to third, just behind Gasly, only to have another lap deleted.
Having mentioned Button's 2004 pole lap, it would be criminal not to share a picture of the svelte lines on the BAR Honda 006. Nice.

Having mentioned Button's 2004 pole lap, it would be criminal not to share a picture of the svelte lines on the BAR Honda 006. Nice.

Interestingly Bottas is only 19th at the moment - his best effort so far on the hard tyres a 1m20.479s. Kvyat matches Gasly's 1m16.913s effort to go third, only for it to be deleted for track limits.
Gasly's time at the top is short-lived though, thanks to those pesky track limits again, although he does set another lap good enough for second behind Verstappen, who has improved again to a 1m16.228s.
Now Gasly moves to the top for AlphaTauri on a 1m16.761s. Times are already comfortably under the 1m19.753s pole time set by Jenson Button's BAR in 2004, a year that was the peak of development in the V10 era.
Verstappen is clearly pushing hard at the start of the session and now becomes the first man into the 1m16s bracket on a 1m16.894s, as Ocon moves his Renault into second.
We mentioned that Latifi was one of only three drivers using the medium compound - the others being his Williams team-mate Russell and Kvyat's AlphaTauri, which is currently bringing up the rear of the 20-car field.

By: Jake Boxall-Legge

Published: