Emilia Romagna Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Event: Qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Saturday October 31
Location: Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola 
Layout: 4.909-kilometer (3.050-mile), 19-turn circuit
Weather: Mostly Sunny
Air Temps: 18 degrees Celsius (64.4 degrees Fahrenheit)
Track Temps: 26 degrees Celsius (78.8 degrees Fahrenheit)
Pole Winner: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:13.609) 
Result:    Romain Grosjean qualified 16th / Kevin Magnussen qualified 17th 

 

Free Practice 

Grosjean: 13th overall (1:16.550), 42 laps completed
Magnussen: 19th overall (1:17.060) 45 laps completed
Fastest: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:14.726)

 

Q1 Rundown: 

18-minute session with all 20 drivers – Top 15 advance to Q2

Grosjean: 16th overall (1:15.918)
Magnussen: 17th overall (1:15.939)
Fastest: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:14.221) 

 

Q2 Rundown: 

15-minute session featuring the Top 15 from Q1 – Top 10 advance to Q3

Fastest: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:14.585) 

 

Q3 Rundown: 

12-minute session featuring the Top 10 from Q2

Pole Winner: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:13.609)
Second: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:13.706)

 

Recap

Haas F1 Team drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen qualified 16th and 17th, respectively, for Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Round 13 of the 2020 FIA Formula 1 World Championship hosted at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola.

Both Grosjean and Magnussen started the day with a productive stand-alone free practice session – Formula 1 trialing a new two-day race weekend format in Italy. The 90-minute outing saw both drivers sample all three Pirelli P Zero tire compounds available, with 87 laps logged between them as they made the most of the limited track time ahead of qualifying.

Grosjean and Magnussen opened qualifying with two new sets of softs available for their Q1 runs. On his first set Grosjean logged a 1:16.251 before his return to the garage. Armed with another set of fresh rubber the Frenchman improved his time to 1:15.918 – just missing out on advancing into Q2 to finish 16th. Magnussen posted a fastest lap of 1:16.508 before dropping to a 1:15.939 lap on his second run on new softs. The Dane ended Q1 directly behind his teammate placing 17th overall.

Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes claimed pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Q3 – the Finn’s fourth pole of the season and his 15th career Formula 1 pole. His flying lap beat teammate and second-place qualifier Lewis Hamilton by .097 of a second.

 

Romain Grosjean, Driver No. 8, Haas F1 Team

“A lot of places can learn from these older tracks. When you drive here, or places like the Nürburgring or Mugello, it’s so bloody good. I’ve really enjoyed it. Yes, we don’t have the fastest car, but every lap here is fun. It’s tough not to get to Q2, especially after such a good lap. Kevin (Magnussen) is the same – we push each other so hard and we get to the absolute limit of the car. Unfortunately, today that’s only good enough for 16th and 17th. We’re normally better in the race than we are in qualifying. We obviously need to see how tire degradation plays a role tomorrow, but we will try for sure. We’ll give it 100 percent.”

 

Kevin Magnussen, Driver No. 20, Haas F1 Team

“I enjoyed the session. It’s a really cool track to drive. Of course, I’m not too happy with the result – though I think this weekend we appear to be a little bit stronger. We should have been through to Q2, but I didn’t have a smooth qualifying. I had traffic and I had a gearbox problem – nothing serious, but it cost me lap time on my fastest laps. The gap to get through to Q2 was very small, so it’s a bit frustrating when you look at that. Anyway, we are where we are. I’m looking forward to a fun race, and as I said – it’s a really cool track, so I’ll enjoy that at least. I’ll try to do my best as always to get something out of it.”

 

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Haas F1 Team

“The positive thing is, having only one free practice session seems to be working. I think the whole paddock did a good job, there was no drama, nothing. That is a good thing. Then qualifying – well there’s not a lot to say. We are where we are usually. We’re fighting with our closest opponents, and that’s what we do. Tomorrow in the race, maybe we can get some points.”