On a circuit marked in the past by tragedy, qualifying in Imola for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix gave a stark, frightening reminder of how dangerous Formula One remains and what a knife-edged challenge this remarkable track presents. Pole position was claimed by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri but only after the session had been stopped twice because of two huge accidents, one involving Yuki Tsunoda and the other Franco Colapinto.
High drama, from which both drivers emerged fortunately unhurt, was followed by an equally bruising blow which Lewis Hamilton described as leaving him “devastated”, in the form of disappointment for Ferrari fans at their home race, with a shock early exit for both Charles Leclerc and Hamilton in 11th and 12th.
In the final moments, Piastri had put in a blistering lap to beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen into second place by just three-hundredths of a second, with Mercedes’ George Russell in third, Piastri’s McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris a disappointing fourth and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in fifth.
It is all but impossible at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari to escape the legacy of the death of Ayrton Senna who was killed here in an accident in 1994, the same weekend when Roland Ratzenberger died a day before in qualifying. Senna’s colours still adorn parts of the town on the walk to the circuit. His memorial, a simple brass casting of the driver in contemplation, attracts huge crowds over the race weekend and is flanked by countless flags.
The circuit underwent major changes after that weekend for safety purposes and the sport also adopted new procedures that have proved extraordinarily successful in improving safety. Yet the fundamental challenge of some of these old-school tracks remains. Imola is still fearsomely quick and narrow, where inch-perfect commitment is rewarded but is also emphatic in punishing errors, as Tsunoda discovered, in a slight misjudgment that led to him crashing out at high speed with a major impact at the Villeneuve chicane during Q1.
He had taken just a little too much kerb on the way in and was violently spat out, spinning before hitting the barriers backwards. The impact threw his car up and nearly over the tyre wall before smashing back into the ground upside down, then bouncing upright again on the track side of the barriers. He emerged and was able to walk away, appearing unhurt.
It was an exceptionally violent impact and the car’s safety cell and halo device functioned superbly to protect him.
“I saw the replay, I’m like: ‘Jesus is he really OK?’” said his Red Bull teammate Verstappen. “It was a big hit, was a big impact, a lot of damage as well but most important is that Yuki’s OK.”
Russell also noted how well the car had protected the driver. “It’s great to see that he’s OK and with a crash like that it shows how impressive these cars are in a situation like that,” he said.
Despite the severity of the accident Tsunoda’s overwhelming feeling was that he had let the team down. “First thing I thought was I was just very ashamed, disappointed, frustrated,” he said, having been pronounced fit at the medical centre.
Shortly after the session restarted and with just seconds remaining in Q1 Colapinto, making his debut for Alpine, went wide, putting his left-rear wheel off at the exit of Tamburello. As he lost the rear, also at high speed, the car spun repeatedly and hurtled across the gravel trap before slamming into the barrier, entering front first with a jarring impact. He too was unhurt but apologetic at his error.
For Ferrari, hopeful of at least putting on a decent show for the tifosi at Imola, there was only disappointment. Hamilton and Leclerc’s last laps were both marked by small errors and they then tumbled down the order as the cars behind went quicker. It left Hamilton shocked as Ferrari’s difficulties continue to hound them.
“Definitely devastated, I feel just gutted,” he said. “Because the car was generally feeling really good. I don’t know, it felt like the car, the setup, wasn’t just right. We just can’t go quicker.”
After so much drama the pole had still to be decided and on the final quick laps Piastri opened and had improved through sector one, after which the McLaren leant on its pace advantage in the final two sectors and took provisional pole. Norris could not match it and while Verstappen did improve in sector one he could do no better for the rest of the lap and Piastri had the place by just three-hundredths of a second with a time of 1min 14.670sec.
Colapinto had set a good enough time to make it to Q2 so finished in 15th but has a one-place grid penalty for being released into the pit lane before the session had been restarted after Tsunoda’s crash. Tsunoda will start from the back of the grid.
Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon were in sixth and seventh for Williams, Lance Stroll in eighth for Aston Martin and Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly in ninth and 10th for Racing Bulls. Kimi Antonelli was in 13th for Mercedes and Gabriel Bortoleto in 14th for Sauber.
Liam Lawson was in 16th for Racing Bulls, Nico Hülkenberg in 17th for Sauber and Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman in 18th and 19th for Haas. Bearman however appeared to have made it through to Q2 in the final seconds of Q3 when Tsunoda crashed and his final lap time is under review by the FIA.
