Imola qualifying, Ferrari humiliated
“We need to make a step forward in qualifying, otherwise we won’t be able to make use of our race pace”: these words from Charles Leclerc were meant to serve as a warning to the team ahead of qualifying at Imola. Evidently, the message didn’t get through, as Ferrari suffered their worst qualifying of the season. Sixth row for the Prancing Horse, who ended up making a poor impression in front of their home crowd.
Tomorrow at the Santerno circuit, Charles Leclerc will start from 11th place, with Lewis Hamilton alongside him in 12th: this marks Ferrari’s worst-ever qualifying performance at Imola, even surpassing the previous low of 2005 (ninth for Rubens Barrichello, 13th for Michael Schumacher).
Today, Ferrari were only the eighth-fastest team on track: no fewer than seven teams will start ahead of the Scuderia, who can realistically aim for nothing more than the lower end of the top 10 tomorrow.
Adding insult to injury, Ferrari were beaten by Aston Martin’s strategy, with both cars making it into Q3 by setting times on used medium tyres, while neither Leclerc nor Hamilton improved their times with brand-new C6 softs.
Qualifying began with a heavy crash from Tsunoda, who lost control of the car at the Villeneuve chicane; the driver walked away unscathed, but the incident triggered a red flag. Once the restart time was announced, an unusual situation unfolded in the pit lane: everyone lined up except the McLaren drivers. Unfortunately, this caused heavy traffic and tire temperatures dropped. Several drivers, including both Ferrari drivers, were unable to improve their lap times. They, along with the Williams pair, pitted to switch to a new set of tires. After the stop, these cars pushed hard to avoid getting caught by the chequered flag, being right on the limit, when Colapinto’s crash brought out another red flag. Ferrari breathed a sigh of relief, but eliminated along with Yuki Tsunoda were Lawson, Ocon, Bearman and Hulkenberg.
Bearman, in particular, had found himself at the back despite setting the tenth fastest time; race control deleted his lap as it had allegedly been set under red flag conditions, though he had crossed the finish line just moments before. The reasoning behind this decision is still unclear, but it benefited Bortoleto.
Q2 started a few minutes late as stewards reviewed Bearman’s lap, ultimately sticking to their original ruling. On the first run, both McLaren drivers took the top spots, followed by Verstappen, Russell, Leclerc and Hamilton, who seemed to have found some performance. Then came a high-pressure moment: should they go for a new set of tires, leaving only one for Q3, or not? The two Ferrari drivers chose to gamble due to the tight margins, but failed to improve. It wasn’t enough, and the strong laps by Stroll and Alonso in the revitalized Aston Martins knocked them out. Charles Leclerc will start 11th, Hamilton 12th, ahead of Antonelli. Rounding out the list of Q2 eliminations were Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto.
In the first Q3 run, Verstappen stole the top time from the McLarens, with Piastri again ahead of Norris, and Russell in fourth. Hadjar placed fifth, followed by Stroll, Alonso, Sainz, Albon and Gasly. For the final attempt, everyone went out on new softs, except for the two Aston Martins and Russell, who opted for used mediums. With a stunning lap, Oscar Piastri put his car at the front, but Verstappen responded immediately, finishing just 0.034s behind. Norris was left disappointed in fourth, behind a Mercedes running a slower compound. Aston Martin performed excellently, placing Alonso fifth ahead of the Williams duo Sainz and Albon. Stroll took eighth, ahead of Hadjar in ninth and Gasly in tenth.
