Oscar Piastri keeps calm to take pole from Max Verstappen at Imola
Formula One leader Oscar Piastri kept calm under pressure to put McLaren on pole position for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Saturday with Red Bull's Max Verstappen joining the Australian on the front row.
George Russell qualified third for Mercedes at Imola with McLaren's Lando Norris fourth in a session that was twice red-flagged after Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda and Alpine's Franco Colapinto crashed in the first phase.
Ferrari, meanwhile, suffered a new low in front of their home fans, with Charles Leclerc 11th and Lewis Hamilton 12th ahead of the seven-times world champion's first race in Italy for the Maranello-based team.
The pole, in one minute 14.670 seconds, was Piastri's third of the season as the 24-year-old chases a fifth win in seven races and fourth in a row to stretch his 16-point lead over Norris.
"It was a very tough session with all the delays, the red flags," said Piastri, who won in China and Bahrain from pole and has only increased in confidence and speed as the season progresses.
"The lap was good. I had about four cars in the last corner, which didn't help, but it was enough. So, very happy with the job I've done and excited for tomorrow."
Four-times world champion Verstappen had been on provisional pole, in 1:14.772 with Piastri 0.049 slower, but the Australian dug deep for the extra milliseconds when it mattered.
Verstappen, winner of the past three races hosted by Imola, managed to improve his time but not enough to beat Piastri's final effort and fell 0.034 short.
"Everything was going really well, just this softest compound is very difficult to keep alive around the lap," the Dutch driver said of the Pirelli tyres.
"Sector one was good and then the tyres again fell away from me from there onwards by tiny margins."
Russell set his time on the medium tyres.
"It's always a surprise when you're so close to the McLaren because they're so quick at the moment," said the Briton.
Ferrari's hopes of challenging champions McLaren never materialised.
"My God, my God," exclaimed Leclerc over the team radio as the realisation sunk in after he crossed the line in front of the massed ranks of Ferrari fans.
"Definitely devastated and gutted because the car was genuinely feeling pretty good," Hamilton told reporters. "I felt like the car setup was right and we just can't go quick enough.
"We threw the soft (tyre) on at the end and for some reason it just did not come alive, there was no grip."
Mercedes' Italian rookie and local hero Kimi Antonelli also failed to make the top 10 and will line up only 13th.
Fernando Alonso will line up fifth for Aston Martin, an impressive turnaround for a team that has struggled this season and for a former Imola winner and double world champion who has yet to score a point in 2025.
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