Alonso had a day to forget in Imola, as he qualified in a lowly P19

Max Verstappen was left "incredibly pleased" with his hard-fought win in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, with the Dutchman bouncing back from issues earlier in the weekend as well as fending off a charge from Lando Norris to take victory.

Having made a strong start from pole position, Verstappen looked to be heading for an unchallenged drive to P1 for much of the event. However, as his tyres started to drop off during the latter stages, Norris was able to significantly close in on the Red Bull.

While a thrilling battle for the lead looked to be on the cards, Norris also found himself struggling for grip and Verstappen managed to hold on as the chequered flag was waved, crossing the line just 0.725s ahead of the McLaren.

Reflecting on the events of the afternoon after jumping out of the car, Verstappen explained how his victory – marking his fifth in the 2024 season – had not come easily.

"I think the whole race I had to push flat out to try and make a gap initially," the 26-year-old commented. "I think on the medium tyres we were quite strong, on the hard tyres it was just a bit more difficult to manage, especially in the last 10, 15 laps.

"I had no grip anymore, I was really sliding a lot. I saw Lando closing in, so the last 10 laps I was just flat out. It's very difficult when the tyres are not working anymore and you have to go flat out.

"I couldn't afford to make too many mistakes. Luckily we didn't, and super happy of course to win here today."

Verstappen had faced some difficulties with his RB20 at the start of the weekend in Imola, having struggled to find the right balance during Friday's practice sessions before recovering to take pole position as well as the race win.

Asked how he and the team had managed this, the world champion said: "We changed a lot on the car. We didn't have a lot of information going into the race, maybe that's why on the hard tyres it was a bit more difficult for us.

"But I think from where we started the weekend to now, we can be incredibly pleased with a pole and a win. I'll take that!"

Verstappen leaves the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari with his points tally at the top of the drivers' standings now at 136 points, giving him an advantage of 33 over team mate Sergio Perez in second. 

2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Tsunoda bags best qualifying of the year, as RB get two cars into Q3 at their home race

Max Verstappen might have struggled on Friday in Imola, but on Saturday he was back to his imperious best. The Dutchman continued his streak of pole positions, despite being put under huge pressure from the McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris – and he grabbed a very special record to boot. It was a pretty good day for RB, too. Here are some of the best facts and stats from Imola qualifying…

• Verstappen ties Ayrton Senna's F1 record of eight consecutive poles.

• He also ties Alain Prost's record of seven consecutive poles at the start of any F1 season.

• Piastri was second, and was set for his second career front-row start for a Grand Prix after Suzuka in 2023. That was until a three-place grid penalty post-session for impeding.

• Norris was third, missing out on pole by less than a tenth of a second. He continues his run of qualifying two positions higher with each Imola appearance (ninth, seventh, fifth and now third).

• After Piastri's penalty, Norris will start the Grand Prix second, for McLaren's first Imola front row since Kimi Raikkonen in 2005.

• Charles Leclerc bagged fourth, but he has never won a race from below the front row of the grid.

• Carlos Sainz was fifth, and has now been out-qualified by his team mate 4-2 in Grands Prix this season.

• George Russell qualified P6, for Mercedes' first top-six start since the opening race in Bahrain.

• Yuki Tsunoda bagged his highest start of the season with seventh, as his RB team mate Daniel Ricciardo bagged his first Q3 appearance of the season.

• Lewis Hamilton made it to Q3 despite coming within 0.022s of being eliminated in Q1.

• Nico Hulkenberg was P10, having made Q3 for the third straight race.

• Sergio Perez could only manage 11th, the first time he's failed to make Q3 this year at a venue that saw him make his maiden front-row start back in 2021.

• Esteban Ocon grabbed 12th on the grid, tying Alpine's best start of the season. Pierre Gasly also started 12th in Miami – the only time he has out-qualified his team mate this season.

• Lance Stroll out-qualified his team mate for the third time this season and second race in succession.

• Alex Albon qualified 14th for the fourth consecutive race.

• Valtteri Bottas was 16th, for the fourth time this season.

• Zhou Guanyu has yet to make it out of Q1 this season, as Kevin Magnussen was eliminated in Q1 for the fourth straight race.

• Fernando Alonso suffered just his second Q1 elimination since joining Aston Martin – the previous one being Austin in 2023.

2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

PRACTICE DEBRIEF: Do on-form Ferrari really have Red Bull on the back foot at Imola?

Leclerc praises performance of Ferrari upgrades as he prepares for 'super important' qualifying in Imola

Charles Leclerc was pleased to enjoy a strong first day on track at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix as Ferrari ran a series of upgrades, but also warned of a need to "keep our feet on the ground" ahead of qualifying on Saturday.

Leclerc looked to be feeling comfortable in his SF-24, having topped the timesheets in both of Friday's practice sessions in Imola. Reflecting back on how the day had gone, the Monegasque commented: "For now, everything went quite smoothly.

"The feeling with the car is quite good, the upgrades on the car are working as expected which also is a good step. And yeah, it's been a very smooth day so it is great, and being at home is always a special feeling for Ferrari, being here and having so much support all over the track means so much for all of us.

"It will be great if the weekend continues in that direction. However, tomorrow the conditions will change massively. The wind will completely turn around, which will have a big effect on all the cars, and there we have to be the best at anticipating those changes."

In contrast to Ferrari's performance, it appeared to be a difficult day for Red Bull, with Max Verstappen complaining of issues with grip throughout both practice hours.

With this in mind, Leclerc was asked if he was dreaming about what could be to come in qualifying and Sunday's race, to which the 26-year-old responded: "We need to keep our feet on the ground, because tomorrow is going to be big changes with the track conditions.

"Track position here is absolutely everything, so qualifying will be super important and it will be important for us to do the job in qualifying. So there is still a lot of work for to do, and we will give it our all to have a great qualifying tomorrow."

On the other side of the Ferrari garage, Carlos Sainz also voiced a positive note about Friday's running. The Spaniard ended FP2 in sixth place on the timesheets, having earlier finished in third during FP1.

"I'm feeling good," Sainz said after the second practice hour. "I had a good FP1, I felt really at home with the car and then we used FP2 as a bit of a test session to try a couple of things.

"It's been a long time since we had the opportunity to test since it's been two Sprint weekends in a row. We wanted to test a couple of items, explore a bit the car set-up, probably went in the wrong direction but we will go back to the FP1 set-up and probably feel stronger again tomorrow."

On how useful it was to have back-to-back practice sessions – following Sprint weekends with just one practice session at the last two rounds in Miami and China – as well as assessing the updates on the car, Sainz added: "It's been a while, as I said, since we could test and back to back some things.

"Regarding the upgrades, honestly across different circuits you don't feel them, you just hope they are making you go faster. I think the right moment to evaluate will be at the end of the weekend once everyone has shown all of their cards."

2024 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

After a series of flyaway events to kick off the 2024 season, Formula 1 arrives in Europe this weekend for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

The action will begin with first and second practice on Friday, May 17, followed by final practice and qualifying on Saturday, May 18, and then the main event, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix itself, on Sunday, May 19. 

Vital statistics

• First Grand Prix – 1980 (Imola held the Italian Grand Prix in 1980, the San Marino Grand Prix from 1981-2006, and the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from 2020 onwards)
• Track Length – 4.909km
• Lap record – 1m 15.484s, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, 2020
• Most pole positions – Ayrton Senna (8)
• Most wins – Michael Schumacher (7)
• Trivia – The circuit's president is Gian Carlo Minardi, formerly boss of the eponymous Formula 1 team that gave Fernando Alonso his debut in F1.
• Pole run to Turn 1 braking point – 553 metres
• Overtakes completed in 2022 – 55
• Safety Car probability – 100%
• Virtual Safety Car probability – 33%
• Pit stop time loss – 29.01 seconds

FAN VIEW: Lando Norris breathed new life into the 2024 F1 season with that brilliant maiden race victory in Miami, and the impact of that is felt here. Max Verstappen still heads the F1 Play voting, but only just. Norris and Ferrari man Charles Leclerc are right behind him in what is virtually a three-way split so far.

The driver's verdict

Jolyon Palmer, former Renault F1 driver: Imola is a fantastic circuit. It's steeped in history, and you feel that as you're driving around it. It's punishing – short run-offs of grass and gravel – so there's not a lot of room for error, and plenty of tough corners as well.

The chicanes early on are probably slightly more straightforward than some of the other parts. Piratella is quite quick, blind towards the exit as well, and that can be a track limits issue if you drop too far wide out of there. And the fact is, a lot of the track is quite tricky.

Acqua Minerale is tough as you have to make sure not to carry too much speed into Turn 12, and then you have to get the kerbs right at Variante Alta. If you avoid the kerbs too much you lose performance, so it's threading the eye of the needle through the kerbs, trying to get maximum performance, but not bouncing the car towards the wall, which is quite close on the exit.

And again braking for Turn 17 catches you out very easily, particularly early on in practice when you get used to it, because it's quite steep and there's gravel on the outside. It just lures you to brake too late. This is a classic challenge and a favourite for fans and drivers.

Emilia Romagna GP pole-sitters

• 2022 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 2021 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
• 2020 – Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)

Emilia Romagna GP winners

• 2022 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 2021 – Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
• 2020 – Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)

FAN VIEW: It's a similar story here, with F1 Play voting relatively tight compared to those early races where Verstappen absolutely dominated. He has the edge for Imola but there is excellent support for the Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, along with Norris and Verstappen's Red Bull team mate, Sergio Perez.

Strategy and set-up keys

Pirelli have chosen the softest trio of tyre compounds from their 2024 range for this weekend's action at Imola, with the C3 serving as the white-marked hard, the C4 as the yellow-marked medium and the C5 as the red-marked soft.

The three softest compounds being in play could lead to more strategic options during the race, which has traditionally been a one-stop, reinforced by the track holding one of the biggest pit lane time losses of the year.

According to the Italian manufacturer, "the track is not particularly hard in terms of the forces exerted on the tyres, even if the asphalt is still relatively abrasive", despite the most recent resurfacing work dating back to 2011.

A packed programme across the Grand Prix weekend, which includes Porsche Supercup, Formula 3 and Formula 2, means the track surface should also grip up considerably as each session passes – providing no rain washes it away.

FAN VIEW: Absolute domination from the aforementioned front five, with literal slim pickings for the rest of the field. Outside of Norris, the Red Bulls and Ferraris, it is Oscar Piastri (McLaren) who is performing best on F1 Play. Meanwhile, there is virtually no support for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).

Current form

Red Bull claimed victory in all bar one of the 22 rounds held during the 2023 season, but they have been beaten twice in six races this year thanks to sterling efforts from Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and McLaren's Lando Norris.

Now the question is whether those occasional chinks in the Red Bull armour – which has simultaneously been dented by news that star designer Adrian Newey is to leave the team – will develop into anything more significant as the campaign wears on.

As well as that maiden victory in Miami, Norris also has form at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on his side, having finished third on the last two visits to the Imola track in McLarens that were nowhere near as competitive as the recently-updated MCL38 now at his disposal.

And, with Oscar Piastri set to receive the rest of the updates that Norris took on last time out, McLaren could be an even stronger force around the fast, flowing 4.909-kilometre track this weekend.

But the papaya cars will not be the only ones hoping to challenge Red Bull, with Ferrari fired up to perform on home soil, Mercedes set to unleash more updates of their own and Aston Martin aiming to build on flashes of pace.

Then there's the tight battle behind, as RB currently hold the edge over Haas in the race for P6 in the constructors' standings, Alpine take heart from their first points finish of the season and both Williams and Kick Sauber attempt to get off the mark.

FAN VIEW: Yuki Tsunoda has been terrific in recent races, culminating in that P7 finish in Miami, and he's expected by F1 Play gamers to go well again here. There is some strong support for Alex Albon of Williams and the Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, while Nico Hulkenberg (Haas) is also popular with voters.

Iconic moment

This is a track that has seen triumph and tragedy over its decades of hosting Formula 1 Grands Prix.

Back in 1994, Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger both lost their lives in separate incidents here on a fateful weekend that cast a long shadow on F1. But there have been joyous moments at Imola as well.

This week we thought it would be fitting to pick Fernando Alonso's battle against Michael Schumacher in 2005.