Oscar Piastri takes pole at Emilia-Romagna GP as Ferrari flops in dramatic qualifying

IMOLA, Italy: Oscar Piastri fought his way through traffic to take pole position in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Saturday as Ferrari had a terrible session, with neither car in the top 10.

Piastri admitted he “thought it was going to unravel” when he came up to slower cars toward the end of his final qualifying lap but it still proved enough as Max Verstappen fell just .034 of a second short of the Australian’s time. That gives Piastri a big advantage in Sunday’s race at a track where overtaking is notably difficult.

“The lap was good. I had about four cars in the last corner, which didn’t help, but it was enough," Piastri said. “Very, very happy with a job well done and excited for tomorrow now.”

George Russell took third for Mercedes, pushing Piastri’s McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris down to fourth.

It was a tough day for the home fans as Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton and Formula 1’s sole Italian driver, Kimi Antonelli, all qualified outside the top 10. All three were caught out by rivals improving their times at the end of the second part of qualifying, with Leclerc 11th, Hamilton 12th and Antonelli 13th.

The narrow, bumpy Imola track punishes even small mistakes harshly as showed in heavy crashes for Yuki Tsunoda and Franco Colapinto, two drivers under pressure to perform.

Tsunoda’s car rolled upside down after hitting the barriers, prompting concern from other drivers. The Red Bull team said Tsunoda went to the medical center.

Tsunoda hadn’t set a time so the Japanese driver qualified last for his fifth race with Red Bull since replacing Liam Lawson in March. He’s struggled to keep up with his champion teammate Verstappen.

Colapinto’s return to F1 with Alpine got off to a bad start when he spun into the wall, causing heavy damage to his car. The Argentine driver said he was unhurt, and qualified 15th.

That crash also knocked out Oliver Bearman after a review showed the Haas driver completed his lap a split second after the red flag for Colapinto’s incident. It would have put him 12th in the first session, but instead he was eliminated in 19th.