Good feelings, times that go out alone, at the house of the tifosi, recently renovated and with that fine rain that suits you so well. But the Ímola qualifying round, this time on Friday and before a weekend that is almost double (there are 34 points at stake between the sprint and the race), turned face down from Ferrari red to dark red almost black for Carlos Sainz when he lost control of the F1-75 in Q2, at Rivazza. The Madrid driver lost his rear when he was second and comfortable in the time table, in fact he slightly improved his records, and collided with the protections at enough speed to damage the front suspension and return to the garage on a scooter.
An inopportune error that does not cost points, because they have not yet been distributed, and that has a solution on the track, but in the meantime the rivals escape again. With the glass half empty, two setbacks in a row after Melbourne. With the glass half full, you have an extra 100 kilometers to go backr in the sprint and save the ballot, and ‘only’ falls to tenth on the grid, because he qualified for a Q3 in which he could not participate. Sprint from the middle of the pack.
Verstappen scratches a pole
Pole went to an impressive Verstappen, grown up in the rain against Leclerc despite the enormous superiority of Ferrari. The Dutchman set the final lap just as Bottas parked the Alfa Romeo in the third sector, he says that he raised “hugely” in the yellow flag zone that would later be red flag. The deluge while the Finn’s car was being collected ruined subsequent attempts, with asphalt in much worse condition, and condemned the Monegasque to second position ahead of Norris, Magnussen and Alonso.
There was then another red flag for Norris incident and a tumultuous qualifying of one hour and 40 minutes was not resumed. The Asturian’s fifth is very positive, because the rain brings out the worst in the Alpine and shouldn’t affect the sprint and the race. He can be raced forward from his best qualifying finish in recent times (he was also fifth at Turkey and Qatar 2021, though at Losail he was third on penalties). Ocon was 19th with a gearbox failure. Ricciardo, Czech, Bottas and Vettel; the cars that Sainz has to get rid of this Saturday Sainz to come back on Sunday with the podium in mind.
Not a Mercedes in Q3
Before, in the first two cuts, the weather played its role. A few came out to Q1 on the intermediate tire (it was raining from Thursday until Friday lunchtime), but the lane quickly dried up. Albon caused a red flag with fire in the brake lines. With so much delay, the rain that shouldn’t interfere with qualifying came in full force in the middle of Q2 and coincided with Sainz’s crash, so no one could improve their times after the second red flag of the afternoon. That left Mercedes out of the game, those who avoided the blush of falling eliminated with all of the law, dry and without interference. Russell will start 11th in the sprint and Hamilton was 13th, although morally the distance seems irrecoverable. The last time there was no Mercedes in Q3, Michael Schumacher was driving one. But there are gaps that can be bridged in this Formula 1, it is not convenient to fall into the worst of pessimisms. Especially if you drive a Ferrari.