After two consecutive minimal losses in qualifying in Saudi Arabia and Miami, now Oscar Piastre (McLaren) did not allow such a surprise and won the pole position for tomorrow's Grand Prix at the “Imola“ track in Formula 1, reports BTA.
The Australian was second behind Max Verstappen after the first outings on the track in Q3, but made an extremely strong second lap, which turned out to be unattainable for the world champion. In his decisive lap, the McLaren driver reached 1:14.670 to beat Verstappen, who will start second, by 0.034 seconds.
Lando Norris, who won four of the first six races in Formula 1, including the last three, will start from fourth position.
The day will be remembered mostly for the two heavy crashes involving of Yuki Tsunoda and Franco Colapinto.
Tsunoda, who drives for Red Bull, suffered a very serious accident at the beginning of the qualifying session. On one of the corners, his car spun, entered the safety zone, and after a collision with the guardrail, his car rolled over. Miraculously, Tsunoda got out of the car completely unharmed, but this delayed the program.
A little later, the durability of the guardrails was also tested by the Alpin driver Colapinto. The Argentine was supposed to continue to the second part of the qualification, but with his wrecked car, this was impossible.
After the restart of the qualification, there were no serious incidents. The second time was recorded by the world champion Max Verstappen from Red Bull. The Dutchman remained 0.034 seconds behind Piastre.
Two Britons will start from the second row. Third is George Russell with Mercedes at 0.137 seconds, and fourth at 0.292 seconds is Lando Norris with McLaren.
The third row in tomorrow's race will be for the experienced Spanish drivers Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) and Carlos Sainz Jr. (Williams). The difference between the two was only one thousandth in favor of Alonso, but the two-time world champion remained almost half a second behind the fourth-placed Norris.
The two Ferrari cars, driven by Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, will be 11th and 12th on the starting row, after failing to reach the third part of qualifying.
Sunday's race is scheduled to start at 16:00 Bulgarian time.