Beyond the results, the Red Bulls no longer walk around, Verstappen no longer drives with his elbow on the window. He now suffers and has to squeeze all his talent to achieve goals. In Ímola he suffered to achieve his seventh pole of the course, only 74 thousandths better than Piastri and 91 than Norris. The difference is now made by Verstappen, not Red Bull. Carlos Sainz will start fifth. And Fernando Alonso, on an unfortunate day with an accident in between, will start from the last line, penultimate.
The day went wrong for Fernando Alonso from the first hour. An accident in free practice 3, a strong blow against the protection and a race against time by his mechanics to put the car on the track two and a half hours later. There were many doubts, but the efficiency of Aston Martin employees did the rest to achieve the classification.
Alonso’s car had the engine, the flat bottom, the gearbox and the rear part of the car changed with the seconds hand waiting with the guillotine, as there was a risk that the Spaniard would not be able to start the fight for pole.
He did it when the session had already started and from that stress a small fiasco arose because not even Alonso’s hands could fix what had started badly. “The accident was stronger than it seemed,” warned Pedro de la Rosa, Aston Martin ambassador.
With little margin and no net, Alonso set out to find an acceptable time and things continued to be ugly. He hit the gravel again, rolled into the sand with the consequent wear and tear of the flat bottom and that was the end of his Saturday. On the next attempt it was clear that the car was not for parties. The Spaniard had the worst time of all the participants and will start second to last in the grand prix, because Sargeant did not make the time.
Above what happened, there is the phrase from Flavio Briatore, present in Ímola, regarding the performance of Aston Martin. «Instead of going forward, it seems to be going backwards. “Sometimes it is better not to bring improvements than to bring them and have them not work.”
In Q1 the equality was maximum, tighter than ever, Verstappen with the best time, but very close to Leclerc, the surprising Hulkenberg and the McLarens, with Sainz seventh.
The second surprise on Saturday is the elimination of Checo Pérez in Q2, a Red Bull out of the last round, the top ten, for the first time in the season. The two B cars of the energy drinks, Tsunoda and Ricciardo, ahead of the black leg car. Checo was unable to improve Ricciardo’s time at the last moment and summed up his performance with “What a disaster!”
To get pole, Verstappen had to bring out all his talent and juggle. His Red Bull is no longer untouchable, as demonstrated by Checo’s elimination. The others have progressed, especially McLaren, a team that always gets it right when it brings evolutions to the car.
The two McLaren drivers, Piastri and Norris, were around pole. They were a thousandths behind Verstappen, but they have him there, close to what happened in the last GP, with Norris’ victory. Ferrari followed, a little further, two tenths, Leclerc fourth and Carlos Sainz fifth.
2024-05-18 15:16:21
#Pole #suffered #Max #Verstappen #Fernando #Alonso
