Max Verstappen took his first pole position of the season on Friday, with the Dutchman surviving a yellow flag during his best lap to snatch top spot away from title rival Charles Leclerc.
The Oracle Red Bull Racing driver was forced to lift off the throttle through the yellow flag zone after Valtteri Bottas was forced to stop at the side of the road, but despite the lift, his lap time was still good enough to take pole position.
Verstappen said it was important to not make mistakes on a day of changeable weather conditions at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, and it was pleasing to end the day in top spot for Saturday’s Sprint race.
“It was good out there today but also very easy to make mistakes, so luckily we mainly stayed out of trouble,” said Verstappen. “We started on the slicks initially and then it started raining again, making the right call on how you wanted to prep your laps was key today and ultimately we chose the right one, so I’m of course very pleased with that.
“When I saw the yellow flags for Valtteri I immediately lifted so there won’t be any trouble there, it does cost you lap time but luckily the lap was still good enough for pole.”
Verstappen hopes practice on Saturday morning will be dry so he can drive the RB18 on a truly dry track for the first time this weekend, but he hopes to be able to convert his pole position into the maximum eight points on offer for the Sprint race win.
“Tomorrow looks to be dry and we haven’t really driven these new cars a lot in the dry here so hopefully in FP2 we can understand the car a bit more in different conditions,” he said.
“It just didn’t seem to work out for me today” – Sergio Pérez
Team-mate Sergio Pérez will start seventh, but the Mexican bemoaned his inability to get his tyres up to the right operating windows for his attack laps that prevented him from joining Verstappen on the front row.
Pérez felt a few things went wrong during his Qualifying session, with his late flying lap in Q1 preventing him from being eliminated at the first hurdle. However, he did not have the pace in the car when it mattered in Q3 to be a contender at the front.
“Overall, it’s a disappointing day but we need to remember it’s just the start of the weekend,” said Pérez. “It just didn’t seem to work out for me today, we got a few things wrong.
“It was important to get the temperature on the tyres and we couldn’t seem to get the right out lap, we were just warming up the tyres and then we had another red flag.
“I am pleased with the pace of the car though, I am looking forward to tomorrow, hopefully we are able to progress through the field during the sprint and get a good start position for the race on Sunday.”
Sergio Pérez was only seventh in Qualifying at Imola – Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd