Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton stormed to pole at the Emilia Romagna GP qualifying with a time of 1:14:411 just 0.035 seconds aged of Sergio Perez in the Red Bull who was closely followed by Max Verstappen in P3. This was the Briton's 99th pole. Charles Leclerc in the lead Ferrari managed a superlative P4 underpinning the improved performance of the SF21. "The day's been great obviously," said pole-sitter Hamilton. "I definitely didn't expect us to be ahead of the two Red Bulls. They've been so quick this weekend," said the 7-time world champion.
Perez out-qualified Verstappen something many believed wasn't possible
Leclerc's teammate, Carlos Sainz Jr didn't make it past Q2 and managed just P11. Pierre Gasly in the AlphaTauri managed P5 while Daniel Ricciardo was the fastest McLaren in P6 after Lando Norris's P2 time was cancelled for violating track limits. Norris managed P7 followed by Valtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes in P8.
Kimi Raikkonen was the lead Alfa Romeo in its home race
Estaban Ocon became the first team-mate to beat Fernando Alonso in qualifying in over three years by coming P9 in the Alpine. Lance Stroll rounded off the top 10 in the Aston Martin. George Russell again outdrove the Williams securing P12 followed by Sebastian Vettel in the second Aston Martin in P13. Russell's team-mate Nicholas Latifi managed P14, while Fernando Alonso was stick in P15.
Kimi Raikkonen in the Alfa Romeo just managed P16 followed by his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi in P17. Mick Schumacher managed P18 in the Haas followed by his teammate Nikita Mazepin in P19. Yuki Tsunoda was P20 as he didn't get in a time because of an issue with the AlphaTauri but expect him to be rapid during the race.
Lando Norris almost stole P2 but his time was disavowed because of track limit violations
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:14.411
2 Sergio Perez Red Bull 0.035s
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 0.087s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 0.349s
5 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 0.379s
6 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 0.415s
7 Lando Norris McLaren 0.464s
8 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 0.487s
9 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1.491s
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin
11 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:15.199
12 George Russell Williams 1:15.261
13 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 1:15.394
14 Nicholas Latifi Williams 1:15.593
15 Fernando Alonso Alpine 1:15.593
16 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing 1:15.974
17 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing 1:16.122
18 Mick Schumacher Haas 1:16.279
19 Nikita Mazepin Haas 1:16.797
20 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri no time
