The Latest Breaking News from Red Bull

Verstappen will start ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.

Having struggled in all three practice sessions so far at the Emilia Romagna race, Verstappen hailed Red Bull’s pre-qualifying set-up changes for “feeling a bit better and I could push a bit”.

Fernando Alonso also takes aim at old rival Hamilton during a heated opening day in Italy

Oscar Piastri finished second in qualifying at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, only to be hit by a three-place grid penalty that's kicked him off the front row.

After the opening series of pan-continental flyaway rounds, the Formula 1 circus returned to its European heartland and descended upon Imola.

The Monegasque driver topped both practice sessions at Imola, edging McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by 0.192s in the second session, on a strong day for Ferrari following the arrival of its upgrade package.Yuki Tsunoda impressed in FP2 by shooting up to third place for RB, ahead of both Mercedes drivers Lewis…

Verstappen's frustration boiled over throughout both practice sessions as his upgraded Red Bull RB20 proved hard to control on the technical Italian venue's second sector.

Charles Leclerc set the pace in Friday practice, making Ferrari the favourite to take pole position on home turf.

Leclerc continued as the frontrunner through the early stages of the day’s second 60-minute session, after he had also led Friday afternoon’s FP1 action, when the cars were split across the medium and hard tyres.