F1 Emilia-Romagna Sprint Qualifying: Max Verstappen secures pole
23rd April 2022Red Bull’s Max Verstappen converted his sprint race pole position into the official grand prix pole after he overtook Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc late in the race.
How the race unfolded…
Verstappen lined up on pole position for the sprint race after he secured the quickest time on Friday qualifying. On the formation lap, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso seemed to have an issue getting away from the grid. Fortunately, the Spaniard was able to get going.
As the lights went out, Verstappen was caught napping as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc overtook the Dutch world champion down into the first turn. As the pack raced to the first chicane (turn two), Leclerc was in the lead ahead of Verstappen and McLaren’s Lando Norris, in third.
However, the lap was neutralised before the first lap was completed as Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou was found in the barrier with a heavily damaged rear end. It was quickly found the Chinese driver had made contact with Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly into turn nine. As a result, the French driver dropped to the back of the back as he suffered a puncture after the incident.
Magnussen and Perez were noted by race control, on the opening lap, for weaving on the straight as they approached turn five. While Gasly and Zhou had their incident reviewed and it was deemed no further action was necessary. On the other hand, when the race finally resumed, Magnussen was issued with a black and white flag for weaving.
The Aston Martin safety car was finally recalled back to the pit lane at the end of the fourth lap. In the penultimate corners, Leclerc bolted and had a comfortable lead into to first, true braking zone, ahead of Verstappen.
On lap eight, Perez stole fourth place from the clutches of Magnussen down the pit straight as the Mexican driver utilised the power of the drag reduction system to overtake the Danish driver.
With 11 laps to go, Sainz – who started P10 – began to hunt down the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo (P6) and Magnussen (P5). However, Ricciardo made a lunge down the inside into the Tamburello chicane to move away from the grasp of Sainz, on lap 11.
As Ricciardo cleared a one-second gap away from Magnussen, the Dane Haas driver became a sitting duck down the pit straight and Sainz passed him with ease.
Two laps later, the Spanish prancing horse galloped passed Ricciardo to move up to P5. His eye’s then switched onto chasing down the leading McLaren of Norris, who had dropped down to P4 after he was overtaken by Perez earlier on.
In a similar instance to Magnussen, at the start of the race, Alonso was put under review for weaving down the straight as he fought against Valtteri Bottas as the race entered its latter stages. On lap 16, Alonso was given a black and white flag for weaving.
With five laps to go, Leclerc was put under pressure by Verstappen who had closed the gap. On lap 19, Verstappen closed the gap down to less than seven-tenths of a second down the main straight. With DRS, the defending world champion overtook the Monegasque Ferrari as they broke into the Tamburello chicane.
The Dutch world champion then went on to secure the first sprint race win of the season, ahead of Leclerc and Perez respectively.
That’s it for the article: F1 Emilia-Romagna Sprint Qualifying: Max Verstappen secures pole! The grid is now set for the official grand prix on Sunday, who do you think will win? Let us know in the comments!
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Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.