Max Verstappen claimed pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sprint race at Imola. The Red Bull driver beat Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc into second and McLaren’s Lando Norris into third.
Verstappen put in a good run in treacherous wet conditions to take the top spot for today’s sprint race which will in turn decide pole position for tomorrow’s Grand Prix.
Qualifying opened on a damp but drying track at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari with heavy rain returning midway through to make for tricky conditions at the business end of the session, which was interrupted with five red flag stoppages.
Leclerc set the pace on his opening hot lap in Q3, mighty through the second and third sectors, but he was only two-hundredths clear of Verstappen with a time of 1min 28.778sec.
The drivers kept lapping as the clock ticked down and Verstappen pipped his rival with a 1:27.999 just before another red flag as Valtteri Bottas ground to a halt on track.
Verstappen’s time might have been declared void if it w …
- April 23, 2022
