2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix qualifying report and highlights: Verstappen grabs pole position in Imola ahead of Piastri and Norris | Formula 1®

Piastri put himself at the top of the timesheets as Q1 reached its halfway point, with the Australian setting a lap of 1m 15.940s to go seven-hundredths clear of Verstappen in P2. Soon afterwards he was displaced by McLaren team mate Norris as the times continued to tumble.

There was a scare for Alonso when the Spaniard ran wide and subsequently took a trip through the gravel, putting his chances of escaping the elimination zone at risk. Elsewhere Albon improved to P12 to get out of danger, while others were also busy trying to avoid the drop zone.

Amongst those was Hulkenberg, who impressively surged to the top of the timesheets in the Haas, though Verstappen soon took over the P1 slot. Ricciardo also got himself further up the field, and Hamilton narrowly made it through in P15.

Kick Sauber’s Bottas and Zhou weren’t so lucky, ending the session in P16 and P17 respectively. Magnussen could not match team mate Hulkenberg’s success and found himself in P18, with the Dane voicing his unhappiness at Piastri seemingly getting in his way on his flying lap. The incident will be investigated after the session.

The biggest shock came courtesy of Alonso, who pitted during the final moments which put him in P20 before being promoted to P19 when Sargeant had a lap time deleted, dropping the American down to last place.

Knocked out: Bottas, Zhou, Magnussen, Alonso, Sargeant