In Pictures: Emilia Romagna 2022
Formula One went back to the Old Continent, specifically to Italy for the Formula 1 Rolex Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell'Emilia-Romagna 2022, or as everyone is calling it, The Imola Grand Prix.
The weekend was different from the rest as it has Qualifying on Friday, a Sprint Race on Saturday and the Grand Prix on Sunday. Friday’s weather was a bit wet for the Free Practice, but a drying track for Qualifying.
QUALIFYING
During Q1, Alex Albon’s Williams FW44 had a right rear brake issue, catching fire and exploding in a frighting manner, scattering debris all over the track, which brought out a red flag.
After a few minutes the green flag was waved, and everyone came out setting their respective fastest laps. The big surprise was Lewis Hamilton, advancing to Q2 by just 0.004 seconds over Yuki Tsunoda. Out were Tsunoda, Gasly, Latifi, Ocon, Albon.
On Q2, rain was announced so everyone tried to set a fast lap before it hit the track. But then, Carlos Sainz goes into the barriers, and was out of qualifying. While everyone waited for the green flag, it begun to rain a bit around the track. A few drivers tried to set a lap, but it was rather wet, so out were Russell, Mick Schumacher, Hamilton, Zhou, and Stroll. First time Mercedes failed to have a car in the Top Ten shootout since Japan 2012.
Q3 started with a wet track, and Kevin Magnussen was the first victim as he drifted out at Acqua Minerale, bringing out a red flag, but after a few seconds, he was able to get his Haas back onto the track with only minor damage. With less than 3 minutes, Bottas slide off the track at turn 16, bringing out yet another red flag. Q3 resumed but there were light rain coming down, and with just under 40 seconds to go, Lando Norris ended up in the barriers, so in the end it was Max Verstappen getting Red Bull’s 75 Pole Position in Formula 1, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Kevin Magnussen, and Fernando Alonso.
Saturday’s Free Practice two saw both Mercedes displaying strong performances with George Russell setting the fastest lap with Sir Lewis Hamilton fourth. Between them, Sergio Perez in second and Charles Leclerc, third.
SPRINT RACE:
As with the morning practice, the weather was a lot warmer and dryer than on Friday, but the dark clouds in the distance looked menacing… The Sprint Race started with Charles Leclerc overtaking Max Verstappen into the first turn, but a bit further back, Zhou Guanyu came together with Pierre Gasly, bringing out the Safety Car. Zhou was out but Gasly was able to continue racing.
The race resumed on lap 5 of 21, and there were battles all over the place, except up front with Leclerc managing his race from Verstappen, although Perez was flying behind them. Then, on lap 20, Verstappen overtook Leclerc on the outside into the tamburello chicane, taking the lead of the very exciting race.
In then, it was the World Champion winning the Sprint Race from Charles Leclerc. Behind them were Perez, Sainz, Norris, Ricciardo, Bottas, Magnussen and Mick Schumacher the Top Ten.
Everything was set for a Fantastic race on Sunday…
EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX:
Sunday morning was damped but not so much, so the Grand Prix started with all cars on intermediate tires. Verstappen and Perez had a magnificent start with Lando Norris also passing Leclerc, then, at Tamburello chicane, Daniel Ricciardo clipped the rear left of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari, making the Spaniard spin. Got stuck in the gravel and regretfully, the Ferrari driver was out of the race. Safety car was deployed to recover the stranded Ferrari.
Race started but an earlier contact forced Fernando Alonso’s Alpine, which had a piece of the sidepod come off the car, retire. Meanwhile, Leclerc was able to overtake Norris for third.
By Lap 18 of 63, the track was too dry for the intermediate tires and many drivers came into the pits for slicks. Verstappen and Leclerc were among the last to change tires, and as Leclerc came out of the pits, Perez was able to overtake him for second place.
On Lap 50, Leclerc came into the pits for soft tires. Norris was just behind and overtook him for third place. A lap later, Perez came in for new softs as well, and as he was coming out of the pits, Leclerc overtook Norris for third. A lap later, Verstappen did his stop, coming out well in front, keeping his first place.
On lap 53, Leclerc went out at Variante Alta and clipped his front wing. He had to go into the pits for a new nose. That enable Norris to claim third. Leclerc came out in ninth, just behind Magnussen, overtaking him a couple of laps later. By lap 59, Leclerc passed Vettel for seventh. Meanwhile, fantastic last laps between Valtteri Bottas and George Russell for fourth place.
The race ended with a resounding victory by Red Bull as Max Verstappen won the Grand Prix at Imola with a Grand Slam (Pole, win, fastest lap, and having led every lap), followed by his teammate, Sergio Perez, in second. A surprised Lando Norris finished third for McLaren. Drivers’ Championship leader Leclerc finished sixth.
QUOTES FROM THE PODIUM
““To have a weekend like this for both of us with a one-two for the Team is just incredible. It was a very lovely Sunday! Everything today was well executed, coming into the weekend I didn’t expect it to be like this. It was more or less a perfect weekend, everything went well for us and we’ll of course enjoy today. I scored the maximum amount of points this weekend and we can be really proud of that as a Team, it’s a great boost. Today was all about judging the conditions, making the right calls and staying very focused and I think we did that very well. We need to keep focused and we know that at the next race we need to be up there again and keep this going.””
““It was a tough race but an enjoyable one. Rule number one in these conditions is to finish. It was difficult because in these conditions it is easy to make a mistake and put a foot wrong but we managed a clean race and kept out of trouble, which was pretty important. I got a great start and the restart was good too, then I think the Team did a great job with strategy out there. On the intermediates I was really thinking to save the tires but the degradation was high and Charles was really fast towards the end of that stint so I was happy to just keep him behind. The race was pretty intense with Charles, he was always within an undercut range and when we thought we had him under control he boxed and made things a lot harder for both of us. We were both pushing with cold tires and, in fairness to Charles, it was easy to make mistakes. We have had such a difficult start to the season with reliability concerns and DNFs, so it was really important we brought it home today - it is a great result for the Team.””
““P3, what a result! We certainly didn’t expect that coming into this weekend, so I’m happy to be leaving with a podium. It’s been a tricky weekend, but the team recovered well to put me in a good position for today’s race. I had a good start and was managing my tires to the end. At that point we were on for a P4, which would still have been a great result. We got a bit lucky with the issues ahead, but we did what we needed to do to be in a position to take that opportunity. Great work by the team at track and back at the factory, great pit stops and a great result. On to Miami!””
