Emilia Romagna GP: Hamilton On Pole, Perez Outqualifies Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton takes pole position for the 2021 Formula 1 Emilia Romagna GP as he snatched his 99th career pole. Red Bull drivers Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen will start the race from second and third position, respectively.

Despite not improving his lap time on the final run of the Q3, Hamilton managed to stay on top of the timing sheet. Perez did a commendable job in his second race for Red Bull as he will start the race from the front row alongside Hamilton. But the Mexican driver will start the race on red-walled soft tyres as he used the soft tyres to get through Q2.

Verstappen was the favourite to take pole position, but a mistake on his final run of Q3 meant that he had to settle for the third position. But he will start the race on medium tyres, and it will be interesting to see how two Red Bulls on different tyres can challenge Hamilton, who will also start the race on mediums.

Valtteri Bottas had a qualifying session to forget as he could only manage the eighth position. Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished the qualifying session in a respectable fourth position. But his teammate Carlos Sainz was knocked out of Q2 and will start the race in 11th position. Pierre Gasly had a decent qualifying session and will start the race in the fifth position.

McLaren drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris will start tomorrow’s race from sixth and seventh position, respectively. Norris was on course to start the race in the third position, but his quickest lap time was deleted for exceeding track limits. Esteban Ocon finished in ninth place, and Lance Stroll rounded off the top ten finishers.

Sebastian Vettel will start the race from the 13th position as he failed to make it to Q3. AlphaTauri’s rookie driver Yuki Tsunoda crashed out on Q1 as he was pushing the car. George Russel and Williams had a good qualifying run as he finished the session in 12th position.

Emilia Romagna GP Qualifying Top 10 Results: