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Team Summary:
With the start of the opening period of Friday qualifying for the 2022
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix would commence with a Williams out first on the
intermediate tyre. Both Alfa Romeo's were on soft tyres joined by both Aston
Martins. Both Williams cars were on intermediate tyres for their first runs.
Both Alpines were on the soft as Hamilton set a 1m:27.214 followed by Zhou
and Russell. But Bottas was now second as Vettel was quickest only to see
Stroll then set a 1m:23.419 to be quickest. Bottas was now second as the
session was Red Flagged as a result of debris from a failure on one of the
Williams cars. Verstappen was third followed by Alonso, Vettel, Perez,
Hamilton, Zhou, Russell and Ocon tenth.
With the restart Ocon was out first with the only remaining Williams also
coming out. Every car was now out on the soft tyre. Stroll would improve but
Alonso would go quickest but Norris would move ahead with a 1m:21.232. Sainz
was now quickest with a 1m:20.319 from Leclerc and Norris. Verstappen was
second but Leclerc would set 1m:19.545 to be quickest from Sainz and Norris
now third. Verstappen was now fourth from Alonso, Zhou, Ricciardo,
Magnussen, Tsunoda, and Bottas. But Magnussen would move into third as
Verstappen went quickest with a 1m:19.295but Leclerc would move ahead with a
1m:18.796. Second was Verstappen, Sainz, Zhou, Perez, Ricciardo, Magnussen,
Norris, Alonso and Stroll now tenth. The Williams pair would fail to make it
past Q1 but they were joined by both AlphaTauri cars, not that this was much
consolation to the Williams team.
The second period of qualifying would see Sainz crash bringing out another
Red Flag. While his car was recovered rain would start to fall and with the
restart teams would return to assess the conditions on the intermediate
tyre. Verstappen would finish the second period quickest from Sainz, Norris,
Perez, Leclerc, Alonso, Magnussen, Vettel, Ricciardo and Bottas tenth. But
Sainz would not be running in the final period seeing just nine cars
running. Despite a Red Flag caused by a spinning Magnussen and another one
when Bottas would park his car at the side of the track the final period of
qualifying would end with Verstappen securing pole from Leclerc, Norris,
Magnussen, Alonso, Ricciardo, Perez, Bottas and Vettel. Sainz was in tenth
but had not set a time due to his crash.
The Williams Racing Team would see
their drivers finish in 18th and 20th. So Sundays race is going to be very
much the same as Australia. But first and foremost the team must determine
the nature of Alex's issue and make sure it is rectified for the Saturday
sessions including the Sprint.
Alex Albon:
Alex would come out for his first run using the intermediate tyre. Alex
would also pit changing to the soft tyre but Alex would have a failure on
his left rear wheel seeing flames come out followed by a small explosion
that would see debris sprayed everywhere. He would get back to his pit but
would retire after the damage was assessed. The right rear brake assembly
had being badly damaged and as such Alex could not longer continue having
failed to set a time.
Nicholas Latifi:
Nicholas would be the first car out in the opening qualifying period running
on the intermediate tyre. He would not set a time and pits to change to soft
tyres. But he would not set a time as it was Red Flagged as a result of an
issue with his team-mates car. He would return with the restart still on the
soft tyre. A 1m:25.201 would see Nicholas slowest. He would pit changing to
new soft tyres as Nicholas would have a spin on his out lap saying that he
did not understand what was happening. Nicholas would improve with a
1m:23.263 but remained 19th and slowest. Nicholas would set a 1m:21.971 to
finish his qualifying in 18th. |
