F1 Emilia Romagna GP Live Updates - Saturday practice and qualifying
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By: Jake Boxall-Legge
Summary
Status: Stopped
Another Mercedes 1-2 in qualifying but plenty of talking points from that session, with Verstappen recovering from a spark plug issue in Q2 to take third and Gasly continuing to impress with fourth place for AlphaTauri. That's it for the live text commentary part of the afternoon as post-qualifying reaction starts to flood in from Imola, but be sure to check back in tomorrow for the pre-race build-up for the Emilia Romagna GP, which starts at 13:10 local time (12:10 GMT).
Here's the full report on qualifying for the Emilia Romagna GP: 
So, Bottas takes the 15th F1 pole position of his career and fourth pole in 2020. His last came at the unintended two-day race weekend at the Nurburgring, so qualifying went to form!
More from Hamilton: “I’m pretty certain you’ll see a boring race tomorrow. After Turn 1 it is going to be a train as there is nowhere else to pass, but hopefully with the DRS that will give us an opportunity to overtake. Nonetheless, I’ll give it everything tomorrow.”
Hamilton: "Valtteri did a great job and it was a pretty poor lap from myself but you can't always get it right. The track is unbelievable and it was a real challenge out there but I enjoyed it."
Bottas: "Never easy to get pole position but I really enjoyed it around this track. I knew I had to improve on the last lap so I found those little gains. I had those shakes after the final run."
Verstappen: "I only did two laps in Q1 and with the trouble in Q2 it was tricky. It doesn't give you a good reference for Q3 and we struggled with not a lot of grip in the first run. But P3, not bad, but I expected to be a little bit closer [to Mercedes]."
Ricciardo takes fifth place for Renault ahead of Albon in sixth, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc fading to seventh. Kvyat, Norris and Sainz complete the top 10 in that order.
Verstappen takes third place, 0.567s off Bottas, with Gasly producing the standout result with fourth place for AlphaTauri - his joint-best career qualifying result in F1.
...and Bottas pulls it off to take pole position at Imola! The Finn does it with a 1m13.609s to take pole by one-tenth of a second ahead of Hamilton.
Everyone except Verstappen now on track trying to pick a place in the train to start their final Q3 lap.
Time for the Q3 countdown/stand-off ahead of the final runs in the session. Dramatic music intensifies.
Verstappen is in his customary third place at the moment with AlphaTauri's Gasly currently fourth ahead of Leclerc in the Ferrari.
Albon sees his opening effort of 1m14.655s, that was good enough for fifth place, deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 9. That's the story of the day so far for the Red Bull driver.
...Hamilton runs fractionally wide at the final corner which sees him drop a wheel into the gravel but he still puts it on provisional pole with a 1m13.781s, with Bottas posting a 1m13.812s to slot into second place.
Q3 contenders: Bottas, Hamilton, Gasly, Sainz, Albon, Kvyat, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Leclerc and Norris. Here we go.
The track marshals are quickly sweeping up the gravel spilled on to the track during that last session but there is no sign Q3 will be delayed, so the top 10 shootout is moments away.
Vettel had his final lap in Q2 deleted for, you guessed it, exceeding track limits which is why he dropped down a spot to 14th which sees Russell moved up to 13th.
Verstappen completes the Q2 recovery as he puts in a 1m14.974s on the mediums to secure a top 10 spot. Albon also makes it into Q3, using the soft tyres, but it is bad news for Racing Point with Perez out in P11 and Stroll out in P15.
Just like that, the Red Bull mechanics earn their corn as they get Verstappen out of the garage with 2m30s of the session to go. The Dutch driver is still on the medium tyres and has it all to do, but he is in the contest.
Red Bull confirm a spark plug issue has hampered Verstappen in this session. He's got just under three minutes to get back out on the track and continue his bid to escape Q2.
Unlike his failed bid to escape Q2 in Portugal last weekend, Vettel has switched from the mediums to the softs as he looks to break into the top 10. Leclerc may need to do the same as he is on the bubble in 10th.
As things stand both Red Bulls are in the drop zone for Q2 along with Stroll, Russell and Vettel. Replays catch why the Ferrari driver is currently P14 as he drifts wide at the final corner, spitting up a load of gravel on to the track.
Double trouble for Red Bull as Albon, who is on the track unlike his team-mate, spins at Turn 15. He keeps it out of the wall and gets going again but has it all to do sitting in P11.
It looks like bad news at Red Bull as Verstappen's engine cover is taken off and his mechanics get to work. Just under 10 minutes to go in this session so it is a race against time to fix the issue and get Verstappen back out on the track.
Bottas leads the opening Q2 efforts with a 1m14.585s ahead of Hamilton's 1m14.643s. Gasly, on the softs, is third ahead of Ocon and Kvyat.
Early laps coming thick and fast but there is trouble for Verstappen as he reports "no power" and duly pits before setting a lap time.
Q2 is getting underway as the Ferrari duo head out on the medium tyres. The Mercedes pair do the same, which was also the case at Portimao in Q2 last weekend.
At the top Hamilton had his best lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 9 so it was Bottas who topped Q1 with a 1m14.221s - a whole 0.008s ahead of his Mercedes team-mate.
Raikkonen is joined by Alfa Romeo team-mate Giovinazzi, Williams' Latifi and Haas duo Magnussen and Grosjean in dropping out in Q1. That means Russell gets into Q2 and outqualifies his team-mate for the 1,000th time (we might be exaggerating but you get the point).
Raikkonen briefly jumps out of the Q1 drop zone but he loses another lap for track limits, this time at Turn 15, so he is out in this session.
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