Verstappen takes pole position to equal Ayrton Senna record as Checo Perez has yet another nightmare

Max Verstappen always stands tall, even in the worst moments of Red Bull, remained with the privileged starting position for the 2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, despite being on the backfoot throughout the weekend.

The Dutch driver leaves little to nothing on the table for his rivals, and already has seven out of seven F1 pole positions in the season, while he equalled the record of eight consecutive poles achieved by the legendary Ayrton Senna between Spain 1988 and the United States 1989.

With a time of 1:14.746, “Mad Max” pushed his car to the limit to repel the McLaren challenge, who looked like the team to beat, winning by 0.074 over Oscar Piastri, and by 0.091 Lando Norris, very close results and with less than a tenth of a second difference.

At the next level are the Ferraris, with Charles Leclerc (fourth) and Carlos Sainz (fifth), who could not show their speed at their home, Imola despite looking very strong throughout the practice sessions.

How did Sergio Perez do?

Bad session for the Mexican driver, who lived a nightmare during the whole Qualifying, and who ended up confirming it during Q2.

Checo Perez failed in his last lap when he was pressured to lower the times, and tried to do it with used tires, a decision that cost him dearly.

The Spaniard went over the kerbs and lost time in the first sector, which he could not recover, so he finished his lap in the eleventh position, and by only 15 thousandths, he was eliminated to go in search of the Pole Position in Imola.

Fernando Alonso did not even make it to Q2

The Spanish driver was one of the biggest disappointments in the qualifying of the Emilia Romagna GP, who made it clear that the improvements have not worked well at Aston Martin.

The Spaniard had problems in Q1 when he went long and ended up in the gravel, a situation that damaged his car and ended up abandoning the session with less than two minutes left.

Fernando Alonso, who, for the moment, will start in the penultimate position (19th) for the race to be held in Imola after crashing in the final practice session, with his car being suboptimal for the qualifying session.

Provisional starting grid for the 2024 Emilia Romagna GP

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
3. Lando Norris (McLaren)
4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
6. George Russell (Mercedes)
7. Yuki Tsunoda (RB)
8. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
9. Daniel Ricciardo (RB)
10. Nico Hulkenberg (Haas)
11. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
12. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
13. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
14. Alexander Albon (Williams)
15. Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
16. Valtteri Bottas (Sauber)
17. Guanyu Zhou (Sauber)
18. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
19. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
20. Logan Sargeant (Williams)