Charles Leclerc says Ferrari had the pace to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix if it had qualified in a better position. Ferrari brought an upgraded car to the first European round of the season and looked quick throughout Friday, with Leclerc …
Charles Leclerc says Ferrari had the pace to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix if it had qualified in a better position.
Ferrari brought an upgraded car to the first European round of the season and looked quick throughout Friday, with Leclerc fastest in each of the first two practice sessions. Max Verstappen recovered from a challenging start to the weekend to take pole position ahead of Lando Norris, with the Ferraris making up the second row and Leclerc believing more was possible over one lap that would have made a better finish than third place realistic.
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“It’s not the best track to judge upgrades, mostly because curb riding is such a thing here that if you have a good car on curbs, then that could hide a bit more what is the real order,” Leclerc said. “The good thing is that everything we expected from those upgrades, we had it. In terms of data, it did exactly what it was supposed to do, which is always a good thing.
“Then looking back, re-analyzing qualifying, I think we basically lost everything at the launch. For some reason, we had a slightly different power strategy compared to McLaren and Red Bull, and we lost everything on the run down to Turn 2. Max, on top of that, had the slipstream [from Nico Hulkenberg].
“But this is something we’ll have to look into, because especially on a track like this, track position is absolutely everything. And when you only have a tenth in between Red Bull, McLaren, and ourselves, we need to do everything perfect. And the third place [on the grid] cost us maybe a better result in the race.”
Early in the second half of the race, Leclerc closed in on Norris in second place but then cut a chicane and dropped over two seconds back. Although Norris then pulled away to challenge Verstappen for victory, Leclerc says the incident meant he couldn’t stay close to the McLaren as he increased his pace.
“To be honest my pace was quite similar for the whole stint. It’s more Lando that then gained quite a bit of pace, and it was not possible for me to come back within DRS.
“Then I was in a very awkward gap to Lando where you don’t get the benefits of the DRS, but you are just losing in the corners, which at the beginning of the stint with the hard [tire], with our pace advantage, I could get within DRS. But then as soon as I lost it, it was also at the same time Lando started to push a bit more. And the two things put together made me go back a little bit.
“But I also had to try something a little bit different. I knew that by managing the tires and attacking Lando at the end it was not the right thing because the pace advantage was not enough. So I just tried at the beginning to put him under a bit more pressure. But yeah, it wasn’t enough.”
There are further positives for Leclerc to take out of the race weekend, though, after he picked up a first podium for Ferrari at Imola since 2006 on his first weekend with a new race engineer in Bryan Bozzi.
“He has done very well. I mean, it’s always very tricky whenever you change, especially in the middle of the season, like it was the case here. So there was lots of new things that he had to get up to speed to.
“I also had Johannes (Hatz), who was my performance engineer, who was new on track. So I had two people in my team that were new in their role and that was quite difficult at the beginning, but actually they’ve done an incredible job and it went really well. Now we’ll work on that and try to get better, but it’s a really good start.”
Max Verstappen admits he could go no quicker as Lando Norris upped the pace late in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, as he just held on to win by 0.7s. Norris was over 7s behind race leader Verstappen at one stage in the middle of the race, but in the …
Max Verstappen admits he could go no quicker as Lando Norris upped the pace late in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, as he just held on to win by 0.7s.
Norris was over 7s behind race leader Verstappen at one stage in the middle of the race, but in the second half of the second stint, he started to reel in the Red Bull. Verstappen says his car was unable to look after its tires and that left him with little grip to respond, seeing Norris close in at a rate that he could not control as he had been pushing throughout the race.
“On the mediums, I think it was very good,” Verstappen said. “I didn’t expect that kind of pace after what we did so far in the weekend, but we could somehow keep the balance together, so that felt really nice.
“Then as soon as I swapped to the hard tires, it was definitely… I mean, maybe not the first five to 10 laps, but after that I was like, ‘I’m not sure I can bring this to the end,’ because the tires just fell out of the operating window and it was just like driving on ice — really snappy and you can feel when the tires are not gripping up anymore.
“Like Turn 7, I almost ended up in the grandstand for my feeling, at some point. Just very difficult, really weird lines that I had to take. Those last 10 laps I was really trying to survive with the tires and then suddenly Lando really picked up pace. I could see him, of course, catch up. I was not sure if I could keep him behind, but I was just trying to do the best I could, pushing as hard as I could with the grip that I had. Luckily it was just enough laps.
“As soon as it was half a second a lap, I was like, ‘Whoa, that’s a lot.’ But the other hand, you can’t do anything about it, so I was just trying to do my pace. You cannot suddenly try and force a half a second out of it when you don’t have the balance.
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“I was just trying to really not make mistakes, really try to drive around the balance issues that I had and be quick on the straight. That’s basically what I think helped me a bit at the end. Also, with the rear wing that we had, we were quite fast on the straight and that probably helped a bit in the last few laps to defend.”
Another issue Verstappen had to deal with revolved around track limits, as he found himself receiving a black and white flag early in the race for three infringements and on the verge of a time penalty.
“They updated me, of course, with the track limits, to just be a bit more careful from that point onwards,” he said. “But the problem was also, in the beginning, I was understeering a lot on the medium, and that was pushing me a bit off sometimes if I missed the apex. So after that, on the hard tires, I was just leaving a bit more margin.
“Of course, the last few laps when Lando was catching me it was a bit harder because I had to naturally really use the track as much as I could. We stayed within the lines, but definitely it does require then a bit more focus, of course. Every exit, you have to be really sure what you’re doing.”
Verstappen took pole position on Saturday despite a challenging set of practice sessions where Red Bull looked in trouble, and he says that makes the final result even more satisfying even if it was not a comfortable victory.
“We changed a lot on the car,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of information going into the race. Maybe that’s why on the hard tires it was a bit more difficult for us, but I think from where we started the weekend to now, I mean we can be incredibly pleased with the pole and the win, so I will take that.”
Lando Norris says he was “praying for one more lap” late in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as he closed in on Max Verstappen but ran out of time to win the race. Verstappen had build up a lead of over 7s in the first part of the race but in the …
Lando Norris says he was “praying for one more lap” late in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as he closed in on Max Verstappen but ran out of time to win the race.
Verstappen had build up a lead of over 7s in the first part of the race but in the latter stages Norris started to reduce that gap and was able to lap more than half a second quicker than the Red Bull. Norris was outside of DRS range starting the final lap and crossed the line 0.7s behind Verstappen, and believes he’d have won if he’d got that close one lap earlier.
“I was just praying for one more lap,” Norris said. “I was just praying for someone to say one more lap. I don’t know why. I just did everything I could. I was pushing like hell to get there and catch up and have a chance. But as soon as you get within 2s, you start to lose downforce and grip. The tires start to overheat again…
“I kind of struggled for a couple laps, but once I understood how I had to drive again — like the last lap I managed to get there, and [get to] seven tenths — like one more lap. At least he would have had to defend into Turn 1, and maybe something could have come from that, but one lap too late. It’s a shame, but it is what it is, and we just struggled too much in the beginning of the race.”
With McLaren particularly quick during Friday practice when the temperatures were cooler than Saturday and Sunday, Norris admits he would have set his car up differently had he known it would be warmer for the race.
“I would probably take out like four holes of front wing and do the same again. Once the tires are where they are, you can’t actually do a lot. We were expecting it to be a little bit colder today than what it was, so we kind of set up the car more for colder conditions rather than hot. I think I paid the price in general.
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“That’s why I had to do so much of an introduction to the tires and kind of bring them up so gently and look after them. Because if I didn’t, I just would have fallen off a cliff like the others did. My only chance was to drive my race, and that meant being under pressure from Charles for more laps than I would have liked.
“As soon as I cleared the traffic and got back into my own rhythm, then I felt good with the car. The tires kind of came back to me and I could push and I was happy. From then on, the pace was amazing, and [that’s] a good sign.
“It’s always a good thing to have good race pace, but clearly when it’s hotter and there’s more degradation to the rear tires, we start to struggle a lot more. This is something we know. Maybe we could have prepared for a little bit more, but nevertheless, I’m happy with the outcome.”
Norris says McLaren is starting to get comfortable with its place at the front of the field, believing the team will be able to target victory at the majority of venues since upgrading its car.
“I think we’re at a point now where we can happily say we’re in the position of Ferrari and Red Bull,” he said. “It’s what we have to get used to. The team [is] doing a good job. I think we’re all doing a very good job, so it’s business as usual. It’s focusing on doing the same things, it’s just we’re fighting for first or second now. It’s still a surprise to say that it’s frustrating not to win, but after last weekend and the improvements we made, it’s what we should start to expect.”
Max Verstappen saw off a late challenge from Lando Norris to secure victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. Verstappen controlled the 63-lap race right up until the final 10 laps, when his hard tires began to expire. Norris, having appeared …
Max Verstappen saw off a late challenge from Lando Norris to secure victory at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
Verstappen controlled the 63-lap race right up until the final 10 laps, when his hard tires began to expire. Norris, having appeared resigned to a runner-up finish, upped his pace and found his McLaren had plenty more to give.
The Englishman closed from a 6s deficit to less than 2s with seven laps to run, and on the penultimate tour he was edging into DRS range for a final-lap lunge.
But he had to push hard on his ageing tires to close the final tenths – so hard that he endured a lairy snap exiting the Villeneuve chicane. That cost him crucial momentum that left him just outside DRS range down the front straight at the start of the final lap, depriving him of a vital weapon in his attempt to snatch victory.
It was enough for Verstappen to hold on for a hard-fought fifth triumph of the season by just 0.725s.
“The whole race I had to push flat-out to try and make a gap initially,” he said. “I think on the medium tires we were quite strong; on the hard tire it was just a bit more difficult to manage.
“In the last stint, the last 15 laps I had no more grip, I was sliding a lot.
“I couldn’t afford to make too many mistakes. Luckily we didn’t. I’m super happy to win here today.”
Norris was understandably disappointed to fall short of victory, though he said he was pleased to prove that McLaren had joined the leading group of teams capable of challenging for regular grand prix wins.
“It hurst me to say, but one or two more laps and I think I would’ve had him,” he said. “A shame.
“I fought hard right until the very last lap but just lost out a little bit too much to Max in the beginning.
“One or two more laps would’ve been beautiful, but not today.”
Charles Leclerc completed the podium in third, his Ferrari lacking the pace to follow the leading two cars after being beaten to the early pit stop by a canny McLaren, but the Monegasque driver said he was satisfied Ferrari had made a step forward with its Imola upgrade package.
“Today we didn’t quite make it,” he said. “[McLaren] were incredible quick.
“All in all I think the race pace today was quite strong.
“It’s looking good for the rest of the season. It’s incredible anyway to be on the podium with all the tifosi here in Imola.”
Oscar Piastri was a beneficiary of McLaren’s astute tactics, being brought in for a pit stop on lap 23 to jump Carlos Sainz for fourth place – though it was of limited comfort for the Australian, who could have been in Norris’s place had he not been penalized three grid places for impeding in qualifying.
Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell spent the race engaged in a largely private duel, finishing sixth and seventh but 13s behind the leading group.
Russell scored a consolation point for fastest lap after a late bit stop for medium tires.
Sergio Perez made a lukewarm recovery from 11th on the grid up to eighth after a long opening stint on the hard tire that included a clumsy trip through the gravel at Rivazza.
Lance Stroll scored a pair of points for Aston Martin in ninth, up from 13th, ahead of an excellent Yuki Tsunoda, who held on for the final point after a 50-lap closing stint on the hard tire.
Haas teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen beat Daniel Ricciardo to the best of the non-scoring positions, with Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu, Pierre Gasly, Logan Sargeant, Valtteri Bottas and Fernando Alonso completing the 19 finishers.
Alex Albon was the race’s only retirement after serving a penalty for being released from pit lane without all four tires securely attached.
Oscar Piastri has lost his front-row starting position at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix for impeding Kevin Magnussen during qualifying. The McLaren driver originally qualified just 0.074s behind Max Verstappen in second place on the grid in Imola, …
Oscar Piastri has lost his front-row starting position at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix for impeding Kevin Magnussen during qualifying.
The McLaren driver originally qualified just 0.074s behind Max Verstappen in second place on the grid in Imola, with teammate Lando Norris third. However, Piastri was investigated for impeding Magnussen in Q1, with the Haas arriving at speed at the Tamburello chicane and complaining he was held up as he failed to advance.
The stewards investigated the incident after the session and deemed that Piastri deserved a three-place grid penalty, stating it was his team’s fault for not informing him of Magnussen approaching early enough.
“Piastri was exiting the pits and Magnussen was on his fast lap,” the decision read. “Piastri impeded Magnussen at the chicane at Turns 2 and 3.
“The Stewards accepted the explanation of Piastri that because of the layout of the circuit at that location, he could not see Magnussen until it was too late, at which time he tried to accelerate away in order to get clear of Magnussen as quickly as possible. Magnussen acknowledged that it was difficult for drivers to see cars behind in many portions of the track, including here.
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“However, the Stewards reviewed the team radio and Piastri’s team did not warn him of the much faster approaching car until Magnussen was too close for Piastri to do anything to safely avoid impeding. In fact there was an approximately 140kmh speed differential and Magnussen was only approximately 40-50m behind at the time and this meant that Piastri was in the middle of the chicane when Magnussen caught up directly behind Piastri. Further, it was clear that Magnussen was on a fast lap since his exit of Turn 19.
“The Stewards also reviewed where other drivers were warned of approaching cars and it was significantly earlier, and they were able to avoid impeding at Turn 2/3. Traffic management for slower cars is an extremely important part of the team/driver combination, particularly in Q1. In this instance the Stewards determine that the lack of sufficient warning caused an ‘unnecessary impeding.’”
The three-place grid drop means Piastri will now start from fifth place on Sunday, with Norris joining Verstappen on the front row, and the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz making up row two.
Lando Norris believes McLaren has the pace to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix but faces a tougher task than in Miami due to the nature of the Imola circuit. Miami saw Norris pick up his first victory in Formula 1 despite starting from fifth place, …
Lando Norris believes McLaren has the pace to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix but faces a tougher task than in Miami due to the nature of the Imola circuit.
Miami saw Norris pick up his first victory in Formula 1 despite starting from fifth place, finding clear air to extend his first stint with impressive lap times and then taking advantage of a safety car period. Although he’ll start second to Max Verstappen in Imola after teammate Oscar Piastri was penalized, Norris believes the fact it’s so hard to overtake on the high-speed venue makes it a tougher challenge to beat Verstappen than two weeks ago.
“We were very good yesterday, but also in Imola when you see others, we didn’t do the quickest laps in these long runs,” Norris said. “We were probably the most consistent, but a lot of others had traffic and things like that. It’s close, like it was today.
“We were confident [on Friday]; the car felt good. It was also a bit colder, so maybe if that kind of came back to us, that would be nice. We had a good day yesterday. The whole weekend, the car has been performing well and the team have been doing a good job. I don’t expect us [to have an easy day] tomorrow.
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“I think to overtake here is pretty much impossible, so that’s our first task. At the same time, if we can pressure them and kind of keep on their toes throughout the whole race and have a performance like Miami, then I think we can be optimistic, of course. The overtaking and the strategy is probably a bit harder than what was in Miami.”
Norris was third quickest in qualifying before Piastri got his penalty, and still just 0.091s adrift of Verstappen, admitting he felt the lap time was in his car on Saturday.
“Car’s been great all weekend, to be honest,” he said. “I think since FP1 we’ve been feeling pretty good. Frustrating — I mean, anytime you’re within one tenth of pole, you always feel like, ‘Where was that last little bit?’ I think it was definitely in there, but it’s a difficult track to nail. I think I did a good job.
“I was happy with my laps, so I think both Oscar and Max did a very good job today. But it’s such a quick and difficult circuit. You kind of have to commit. You can’t try and do things. You have to just commit to it and kind of see how you end up on the other side.
“So it’s all about timing, and as soon as you misjudge something a little bit, it can go wrong pretty quickly. It’s an exciting [qualifying] lap. I think we did a good job from a team side. I feel like I did a good job today — strong performance from McLaren and excited for tomorrow.”
Fernando Alonso was left to rue a day “where everything went wrong” after crashing in FP3 and qualifying 19th for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Aston Martin were looking to reach Q3 with an upgraded car in Imola but had their preparations for …
Fernando Alonso was left to rue a day “where everything went wrong” after crashing in FP3 and qualifying 19th for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Aston Martin were looking to reach Q3 with an upgraded car in Imola but had their preparations for qualifying hit when Alonso spun at the final corner and hit the barrier. The damage required both car crews to work on Alonso’s car to get it ready in time for Q1, but then an unspecified issue led to him aborting his final attempt to advance and he was slowest of those to set a time before Logan Sargeant saw a lap deleted.
“One of those days that everything went wrong,” Alonso said. “Starting [with] FP3 obviously with a crash, quite heavy. The mechanics did a good job to make everything ready for Q1.
“And then in Q1, a combination of things, to be honest. We started with fuel for the whole session, just to give me a little bit of laps and practice. Just preparing some pit stops.
“I set the lap time at the very beginning when the car was heavy on fuel. Then when the car was light at the end and we put the last set of tires on, I had to box for an unknown problem. They called me [to] box, so it was quite painful.
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“I asked a few times [if they were sure they wanted me to box now]… I’m sorry for the mechanics because they deserve better after the job that they have done. But yeah, one of those days that everything goes in the wrong place.”
Alonso did at least feel that the Aston Martin upgrades were a step forward but believes the nature of the Imola circuit means he might struggle to show that pace on Sunday.
“The car felt a little bit faster this morning compared to yesterday before the crash. Now into qualifying the car also felt good. As I said, that lap is the first lap of the day for me on soft tires and heavy on fuel.
“I think there is a little bit of pace in hand. But yeah, the upgrades, I think the team is the one to analyze it and to comment on it. I think we have a lot of data from yesterday, especially FP1.
“Let’s see. I think Imola is one of the worst places to start at the back … it is the second most difficult circuit to overtake behind Monaco. Singapore ranks easier than [Imola] to overtake, so that tells everything. It’s going to be a tough race, but we should be able to learn something about the package.”
Max Verstappen equaled Ayrton Senna’s record for eight consecutive pole positions after seeing off a stern challenge from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris for top spot on the grid at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Verstappen had been deeply …
Max Verstappen equaled Ayrton Senna’s record for eight consecutive pole positions after seeing off a stern challenge from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris for top spot on the grid at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Verstappen had been deeply uncomfortable with his Red Bull car throughout the practice session and had been tipped to lose his pole streak to either McLaren or Ferrari, but the Dutchman was imperious when it counted, topping all three qualifying segments.
His charge to pole wasn’t completely unchallenged, however. Though Ferrari wilted in Q3, McLaren drivers Piastri and Norris were omnipresent.
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Norris led the way for the papaya team at first, getting to within 0.073s of top spot after his first lap, but he couldn’t follow Verstappen through the second runs, when teammate Piastri came to the fore.
The Australian, benefitting from the team’s Miami upgrade package in full for the first time this weekend, improved by enough to take pole position for himself, but his gains were neutralized by Verstappen’s final tour, which restored a 0.074s margin to pinch career pole No. 39.
“Really difficult weekend so far, even this morning,” he said. “I’m incredibly happy to be on pole here, I didn’t expect that.
“We made some final changes before qualifying. They seemed to make it a little bit better. I could push a little bit harder.”
Verstappen also paid tribute to Senna, whose record of eight consecutive victories – spanning the 1988 Spanish and the 1989 United States Grands Prix – he equaled, dating back to last year’s season-ending race in Abu Dhabi.
“Thirty years since he [Senna] passed way at this track — of course I’m very pleased to get pole here,” he said. “In a way it’s a nice memory to him. He was an incredible Formula 1 driver.
“A great day for me, great day for the team, so I’m very, very happy.”
Piastri wasn’t deterred for having been beaten to top spot, the McLaren driver punchily claiming that a second consecutive victory for the team could be on the cards on Sunday.
“I think normally in the past we’d say no, but I think with our recent performances we’ve learned to say yes. We’ve definitely been on the pace all weekend. The confidence is high we can do something good.”
McLaren teammate Lando Norris will back him up from third on the grid, and the Miami Grand Prix winner was similarly optimistic about his team’s standing.
“It’s exciting we’re close, and I can’t wait for tomorrow,” he said. “To be ahead of Ferrari also is a nice result for us. It’s going to be close. It’s going to be a good race tomorrow.”
Charles Leclerc had topped both Friday practice sessions but slumped to fourth in Q3 and 0.224s off the pace. Teammate Carlos Sainz fared worse in fifth, where he shipped almost half a second to pole.
Mercedes qualified sixth and eighth with George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who sandwiched and impressive Yuki Tsunoda in seventh.
Tsunoda’s RB teammate, Daniel Ricciardo will line up ninth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg in 10th.
Sergio Perez will start a surprise 11th after failing to improve enough following Q1. The Red Bull Racing driver needed to find just 0.015s to earn a Q3 berth, but a small mistake through Variante Alta was enough to put paid to a shot at pole position.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon qualified 12th ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, Williams driver Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly in the other Alpine.
Sauber teammates Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu will start 16th and 17th ahead of Kevin Magnussen, who was frustrated by what he felt was a block by Piastri that will be investigated after the session.
Fernando Alonso was a shock 19th at the end of Q1, the culmination of an unusually scruffy day for the Spanish veteran.
Alonso had crashed in final practice earlier in the day, forcing his team into a race against time to prepare his car for qualifying, but he lacked pace by the time he hit the track. Appearing to lack front-end bite, Alonso once ran through the gravel at Tamburello and later abandoned the session altogether, pitting before he could complete his final lap. The uncharacteristic performance put him 0.063s behind Magnussen, 0.313s short of a spot in Q2 and 1.155s off the pace set by Verstappen in Q1.
Logan Sargeant will prop up the grid from 20th after having his fastest lap deleted for exceeding track limits, though his best time would have been quick enough for only 17th place.
Oscar Piastri topped final practice at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix after a frenetic final few minutes of the session owing to a late red flag caused by Sergio Perez. Perez was on a flying lap on fresh softs when he took too big a bite out of the …
Oscar Piastri topped final practice at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix after a frenetic final few minutes of the session owing to a late red flag caused by Sergio Perez.
Perez was on a flying lap on fresh softs when he took too big a bite out of the curb entering Variante Alta. His Red Bull car was launched into the air and landed awkwardly, with the momentum spitting him into the outside barrier, where he lost his front wing.
Red flags were called to recover the broken car with less than six minutes remaining, but quick work from the marshals enabled the session to resume with a couple of minutes still on the clock.
Piastri had set the time to beat of 1m 15.529s in his McLaren shortly before the interruption, albeit with no other driver having had the time to string together a lap in reply.
But the chaos of the resumption, with the entire field queuing to exit pit lane together, meant few drivers got a clear shot at top spot anyway, leaving the Australian 0.3s clear at the head of the table.
He headed McLaren teammate Lando Norris in the final order, the Briton one of those to navigate the traffic to set a competitive time, albeit well shy of his teammate.
The messy ending to the hour left the competitive order shrouded ahead of an intriguing qualifying session in which Max Verstappen’s perfect pole run is tipped to be challenged by both McLaren and Ferrari.
Carlos Sainz spent most of the session at the top of the order, but the late chaos dropped him to third and most than half a second off the pace. Teammate Charles Leclerc was 0.02s further back, while George Russell represented Mercedes in fifth.
Max Verstappen could do no better than sixth, 0.837s off the pace, for Red Bull. Though the Dutchman wasn’t able to complete a final flying lap, at no stage did the title leader look markedly more comfortable than he had on his uncomfortable Friday, his RB20 notably less compliant over the curbs.
Combining his best sector times would bring Verstappen to a still distant 0.456s of Piastri’s time, and his interrupted fastest lap looked likely to be good enough only to potentially challenge Norris for second at best.
Alex Albon was seventh for Williams ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and the sole surviving Aston Martin of Lance Stroll after teammate Fernando Alonso committed an uncharacteristic error at Rivazza during a long run on hard tires.
The veteran Spaniard carried too much speed from too wide an entry into Turn 18. His Aston Martin broke traction immediately on entry, spinning into the gravel and hitting the barrier backwards.
Though he reported he was okay, he was taken to the medical center for precautionary checks after the smash.
A five-minute red flag was called with 35 minutes on the clock, leaving the Silverstone team with a power of work to do to ready Alonso’s car for qualifying.
Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10 for Haas ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, the crashed Sergio Perez and Yuki Tsunoda.
Valtteri Bottas was 14th ahead of Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen, Lewis Hamilton – who never completed a single-lap performance run – the smashed Alonso, Pierre Gasly and Zhou Guanyu.
The No. 7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi scored an impressive victory in Sunday’s 6 Hours of Imola, fighting through rain showers in the final third of the race, creating an enthralling strategic battle between …
The No. 7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi scored an impressive victory in Sunday’s 6 Hours of Imola, fighting through rain showers in the final third of the race, creating an enthralling strategic battle between Toyota, Porsche and Ferrari.
After Conway climbed from sixth to third in the first stint, and De Vries steered the car to the lead with an opportunistic move on Miguel Molina, Kobayashi was tasked with taking the wheel for the run to the flag.
He would cross the line just ahead of Kevin Estre in the No. 6 Porsche, who reeled him in during the final hour of the race but couldn’t find a way past him. Kobayashi, who was tasked with holding the lead and saving fuel, held his nerve in what became a gripping, tense finale on the drying circuit.
On the road, it was a tight finish, but the winning margin would grow to 7s after the No. 6 was handed a 5s time penalty after the race for overtaking under safety car. Estre knew he needed to pass the No. 7 and build a lead, but despite his efforts, he would come up just short.
“Nyck and Kamui did a stellar job, especially Kamui at the end as he was fuel saving massively. I don’t think we could have executed the strategy much better. It was really hard in the conditions to read what was going to happen, as it was raining on and off,” Conway said.
“I’m very happy and very thankful to be sharing the car with Mike and Kamui. We deserved this one,” de Vries, after scoring his first WEC overall win, added. “It’s great to be back on the top step, because my last win was the Formula E race in Berlin in 2022.”
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) April 21, 2024
The No. 5 Penske Porsche, meanwhile, made it a double podium for the German marque, adding to its strong start to the season which began with a historic 1-2-3 in Qatar back in March.
Ferrari, which dominated qualifying with its 499Ps, heads home with no trophies. A strategy gamble when the rain arrived cost all three 499Ps over a minute.
This was a race that started dry and quickly became all about fuel saving and tire strategy when almost the entire Hypercar field quickly changed to wets following a safety car restart in the fourth hour. Ferrari’s chances of winning quickly faded as strategists chose to keep all three cars out on slicks.
“The information we had on our side was wrong. We thought the weather would be temporary,” admitted Giuliano Salvi, the Ferrari sports car race and testing manager. “Here, at the moment, we need to revise our chain of communication for sure. It was a mistake. We cannot say it was a good race, because we based this on some scenarios that were wrong. But our strategy is not to finger-point.”
With the rain getting heavier and the conditions worsening, the two factory Ferraris sat 1-2 with a comfortable lead, but their advantage wouldn’t last as the team eventually made call to change all three cars to wets too late. This dropped them down the order and ultimately cost the team a famous result on home soil. Had the team split the strategy across its three 499Ps, it may have been a completely different story.
The No. 50 Ferrari came home fourth after polesitter Antonio Fuoco pressured Toyota’s Brendon Hartley into a mistake in the final minutes. Hartley would finish fifth in the No. 8 ahead of the No. 20 WRT BMW which briefly sniffed a podium before two trips to the gravel for Sheldon van der Linde.
AF Corse’s No. 51 Ferrari came home a disappointing seventh, 1.7s ahead of the No. 83 privately-entered 499P, which at least finished first of the privately-entered cars in the Hypercar World Cup. Both JOTA Porsches finished outside the top 10 and the Proton Porsche retired with a mechanical issue.
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In the first half of the race, prior to the rain showers, there were plenty of incidents, including a multi-car pileup at the start which saw three Hypercars end up off the lead lap and out of contention.
Contact at the back of the field into Turn 2, when Jean-Karl Vernay’s Isotta hit the rear of the No. 36 Alpine of Matthieu Vaxiviere, set off a chain reaction which saw the No. 15 BMW of Marco Wittmann and the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 end up turned around.
“I tried to warm the tires as much as I could, and was cautious as it’s impossible to overtake at the start here. I braked early, locked up everything and made contact with the car in front. I’m sorry about it. I tried to be safe and didn’t take risks,” Vernay, who wasn’t penalized but felt he was at least partially at fault, admitted after his stint.
Both spinning cars sustained significant damage, as did the Isotta, which continued with an Alpine tail light lodged into its front end.
The result was lengthy trips to the garage for the Nos. 15, 94 and 36, which then sustained further damage after an off at Turn 3 immediately after the Turn 2 incident.
Vaxiviere was unable to turn left due to steering damage and ended up running through the gravel and into the tires, collecting a Goodyear advertising board en route. He was later handed a one minute stop-go for causing the incident.
BMW’s No. 15, meanwhile, spent the longest time in the pit box, the car requiring significant repairs, finishing 42 laps off the lead.
In LMGT3, a decision by WRT to stay out on slick tires for the entire race made the difference. The Belgian team’s M4 LMGT3s finished 1-2, scoring BMW its first WEC class win in fine style.
The No. 31 of Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung came home first, capturing their first win of the season after hours of fighting with their No. 46 sister car, which eventually dropped time from a drive-through penalty late in the race and finished 22s off the lead.
“It was a crazy race, difficult to read, difficult to make the decisions and really difficult to drive,” said Farfus.
“The team, though, was very calm making the big calls, and that changed the whole end result of the race. I was very confident about it, I felt extremely comfortable behind the wheel, so I could push and they could make some ground.
“BMW is my family,” he added when asked by RACER about the significance of the victory for the brand. “18 years with the company and all of the success I achieved was because I had the propeller on my chest. I’m so thankful for the trust they gave to me for the support in bringing this first victory for them. It’s something very special.”
Imola was about as up-and-down as it gets for WRT. Motorsport Images
The pole-sitting Pure Rxcing Porsche, which gambled and took wets, ended up third after controlling the first half of the race. Alex Malykhin was the class of the bronze driver pack in the early stages once again, but the team’s choice to switch to wet weather tires cost it significant time, with Klaus Bachler unable to catch the BMWs late in the race with the car back on slicks.
Off the podium, the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 came home fourth, after Alessio Rovera muscled past Alex Riberas in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage with 13 minutes to go.
It was a strong performance for the No. 55 throughout, after a particularly impressive drive from Francois Heriau at the start when all the Bronze drivers were strapped in. A podium was possible had the team not had to serve a drive-through penalty for track limits.
Heart of Racing, meanwhile, looked capable of challenging at the sharp end but was never really in contention for victory. Its Vantage dropped down the order at the start and spent much of the race battling back and fighting for a top-five finish.
United Autosports’ best-placed McLarenn GT3 EVO, the No. 95 of Josh Caygill, Nico Pino and Marino Sato, was another car that didn’t switch to wet tires. But for the Anglo-American squad, the decision to stay on the Medium Goodyears didn’t prove to be as advantageous as it did for WRT.
Nevertheless, sixth place represents an encouraging points finish for the team, which is still getting up to speed with the McLaren.
The two TF Corvettes failed to feature at the front, coming home seventh and eighth, a lap ahead of the No. 77 Proton Competition Mustang and D’station Aston.
Further down the classification, it was a tough day for Manthey’s second Porsche, which ended up in the barriers as the race started after contact with Sarah Bovy in the Iron Dames Lamborghini. The damage forced Yasser Shahin into the garage for a lengthy spell to replace the front splitter and fenders.
Iron Dames’ tough day continued after. Electrical issues on the car forced the team to work on the Huracan in the pits twice, dropping it more than 20 laps off the lead before retiring it.
“The start was really strange,” Bovy said. “I would like to talk with the other drivers. It was like we started the race and stopped it three times. The guys behind had momentum and the Porsche couldn’t avoid me.
“The car felt OK to drive after, but we started to have electronic issues with the power management. I did a few power cycles but that was not enough.”
Next on the FIA WEC calendar is the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on May 11.
