Comment: Max and Sergio crash Tifosi Festa – Gulf Digital News

Comment: Max and Sergio crash Tifosi Festa – Gulf Digital News

Analysis of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, brought to you by Bahrain International Circuit

F1 was back to Imola and for the first time this season a sprint race formed part of the weekend. As a reminder, the format of these weekends means that qualifying takes place on a Friday, which sets the grid for the sprint race. The sprint race on Saturday is run over 100km (21 laps of Imola) with points on offer for the top eight.

Points were only on offer for the top three last year, so this difference adds more significance for these shorter races. The result of the sprint race then sets the grid for the main Sunday race.

In Friday’s qualifying, the weather played a major part with rain never far away, leading to five red flags during the session. Under a clear track, once again there was little in it between Ferrari and Red Bull, with Verstappen pipping Leclerc to pole. Further back, Norris was an impressive third, making the most of difficult conditions. Elsewhere, Mercedes continued to be the big story as it struggled as much as ever in qualifying, with Russell 11th and Hamilton 13th.

The Silver Arrows fared no better in the following