Hamilton on pole ahead of Perez in 2021 Emilia Romagna GP qualifying

Lewis Hamilton took pole in a thrilling qualifying session in Imola, as Sergio Perez, starting 2nd, became the first Red Bull driver to out-qualify Max Verstappen since Daniel Ricciardo in 2018.

Charles Leclerc restored some home pride for Ferrari with 4th on the grid.

Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz and Sebastian were all big names to fall in Q2, joined by impressive showings from both Williams.

Yuki Tsunoda went into the Variante Alta too hot and lost control of his Alpha Tauri crashing out early in Q1.

Q1

Yuki Tsunoda came out fired up for his first Q1 hot-lap, and ended up flying straight off the circuit, losing control through the Variante Alta and going backwards into the barriers. The damage looked significant, with a gearbox change likely for the AlphaTauri.

Kimi Räikkönen was the next biggest scalp as he set 16th fastest lap of Q1 with 1min 15.974sec, heading his Alfa Romeo team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi who came in 17th with 1min 16.122sec.

Haas predictably brought up the rear, yet Mick Schumacher was impressive in only being a tenth behind Giovinazzi. He’ll start 18th after clocking 1min 16.279sec, with his team-mate Nikita Mazepin over half a second back with a 1min 16.797sec.

Q2

There were a number of shock exits in Q2. Carlos Sainz disappointed home fans by only setting a time good enough for 11th, a 1min 15.199sec.

0.062sec behind him was George Russell, mightily impressive as he and Nicolas Latifi hauled both Williams out of Q1 for the first time since Hungary last year. The Canadian registered 1min 15.593sec to start 14th.

Stuck in a Grove sandwich though was Sebastian Vettel, still looking out of sorts in his Aston Martin as he was knocked out after setting a time of 1min 15.394sec. He’ll start 13th.

The final big shock was Fernando Alonso’s exit. He set the exactly the same time as Latifi to leave the Alpine 15th on the grid for tomorrow.

Q3

A thrilling Q3, but a familiar result: Hamilton once again was the dependable Saturday man, taking pole with a 1min 14.411sec.

Sergio Perez scored the best qualifying position of his career as scored 2nd with 1min 14.446sec, with his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen 0.052sec behind to line up 3rd.