Emilia-Romagna is back! One of the two Italian GP’s on the calendar has returned in 2024 after its unfortunate flooding in 2023. Following the sprint races in Miami and China, we return to the normal race format. Let’s head into the weekend and recap this exceptional Italian GP!
via formula1.com
Looking at FP1, Charles Leclerc, George Russell, and Carlos Sainz are the top three of the session.
Oliver Bearman returns to F1 after his exceptional performance for Ferrari in Saudi Arabia. This time, he is in a Haas and places 15th for FP1.
Oliver Bearman in Kevin Magnussen’s Haas
Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen experience issues at turn 12 and 14 with Oscar Piastri, Logan Sargeant, and Yuki Tsunoda experiencing similar difficulties at turn 17. All of them go into gravel just slightly. Daniel Ricciardo, however, went fully into the gravel.
via FP1 highlights on formula1.com
Alex Albon’s car loses power and brings out the red flag. This interrupts Russell’s flying session for Mercedes when leading the laps of the opening session.
Leclerc ultimately emerges top of the session with a lap of 1:16.990s.
Leclerc remains at the top for FP2 with a lap of 1:15.906s; Piastri and Tsunoda follow.
However in FP3, Piastri takes Leclerc’s spot with a lap of 1:15.529s; Norris and Sainz follow.
Fernando Alonso hits the barriers and brings out the red flag in his Aston Martin. Checo also goes into the barriers with no grave issues following.
Max Verstappen qualifies pole for Imola! No matter what happens throughout the practice sessions, Verstappen will always find his way toward pole.
Bottas, Zhou, Magnussen, Alonso, and Sargeant are eliminated in Q1.
Sergio Perez was at risk of being eliminated in Q2 and performed another lap. He improved his time but not enough to get out of the elimination zone. Daniel Ricciardo qualifies 10th for Q2, essentially out-qualifying Perez which sparks intrigue within viewers as they are both contenders for the open 2025 Red Bull seat.
Perez, Ocon, Stroll, Albon, and Gasly are eliminated in Q2.
The Ferraris, McLarens, and Verstappen are the top contenders for the top positions. The Ferraris improve their time but not enough to move up places. Piastri outqualifies his teammate at the last moment with Verstappen raising the benchmark even though he was on pole.
Verstappen, Piastri, and Norris are the top 3 on the Imola grid for 2024! Not for long as Piastri is penalized 3 grid places for impeding another driver during qualifying. The starting grid was then Verstappen, Norris, and Leclerc.
Going into the race, Verstappen leads for the most part with Norris quickly behind him. Norris continues to fight Verstappen for 1st place with a close battle between them both.
Albon experiences issues with his car and tires on lap 8 and ultimately retires later on in the race.
Perez experiences difficulty with the same turns he did in qualifying and goes into the gravel once again, losing a few seconds.
Hamilton also goes into the gravel when locking up in turn 12.
Leclerc cuts through the chicane at turns 14 and 15, giving him no advantage even though it was unintentional.
Verstappen, Norris, and Leclerc are our podium finishers in Imola for 2024!
Here are the full results:
- Max Verstappen
- Lando Norris
- Charles Leclerc
- Oscar Piastri
- Carlos Sainz
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Sergio Perez
- Lance Stroll
- Yuki Tsunoda
- Nico Hulkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Esteban Ocon
- Zhou Guanyu
- Pierre Gasly
- Logan Sargeant
- Valterri Bottas
- Fernando Alonso
- Alexander Albon (DNF)
The return of Imola has touched the audience in a way that has never been seen before. The spirit in the region is the most to look forward to every year!
Next up: The legendary Monaco GP.
107 Pursuit 
Leave a comment