Ciao MiniFans! Welcome back to Imola for the second Grand Prix-weekend of the season. It promises to be an exciting session, especially with Verstappen battling with the Mercedes at the top of the charts. Did Verstappen get rid of his Italian curse? Let’s find out!

The beautiful Italian sun is out and so are the Haas drivers. It’s important for them to get out early and have little traffic in order to set the best possible lap time. Only five minutes into the session, we got a red flag due to a crash of Tsunoda. The Japanese rookie went relatively far over the curb in turn 15, corrected too much and bounced into the wall. It’s a costly mistake, since the youngster will start last. Norris set a surprisingly quick lap time which put him on a provisional P2, splitting Bottas and Verstappen. The Brit was also very strong during the practice sessions. He’s worthed to keep an eye on during the the next portions of qualifying, as well as the race! Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, Schumacher, Mazepin and Tsunoda were eliminated thus far. Both Williams drivers made it to the top 15 which is the first time since the Hungarian GP of 2020!

Q2 started off with a fastest lap from Hamilton and Verstappen splitting the two Mercedes. Only a few minutes later, Norris topped the charts with an astonishing lap which was nearly a tenth faster than Hamilton’s. Both Aston Martins got initially a top ten spot, but Stroll and Vettel took a risk by staying in the pits during the final minutes. Vettel lost his bet and therefore his top 10 position. Meanwhile, Sainz set a rather disappointing lap time which put him on P11. The drivers eliminated in Q2 are Sainz, Russell, Vettel, Latifi and Alonso.

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Perez joined the top three in Q3 with a superb lap, however he wasn’t able to keep Hamilton and Verstappen behind him. The time splitting these two rivals was a whopping 91 hundredths, which put all eyes on them for the rest of the session. Bottas had a disappointing first run and ended up on P6, just below Leclerc. The Silver Arrows had disappointing second runs, which can’t be said of Norris! The Brit nearly got pole, but the P2 was taken away from him due to… you guessed it: track limits. Perez continued his amazing Q3 with an amazing P2, placing both Red Bulls in the top three!

Lewis Hamilton takes pole position for the Emilia Romagna GP! Perez and Verstappen completed the top three, followed by Leclerc, Gasly, Ricciardo, Norris, Bottas, Ocon and Stroll.