McLaren’s Miami Grand Prix win may have been aided by the timing of the Safety Car but the team’s performance was also boosted by the upgrade it introduced two weeks ago.
However Miami has tended to be one of the team’s weaker circuits. Therefore they were hopeful of a stronger showing once the championship moved on to circuits which suit them better.Those hopes have been realised at Imola, where the team produced its most competitive showing of the season so far in qualifying, and arguably should have taken pole position.
Indeed, had it not been for the huge tow Max Verstappen picked up from Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas on the start/finish straight, both McLaren drivers would likely have out-qualified him. Verstappen gained two tenths of a second over everyone in the first sector of the lap:
Sector times
| P. | # | Driver | S1 | S2 | S3 | Ultimate lap (deficit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Max Verstappen | 23.408 (1) | 25.922 (2) | 25.39 (5) | 1’14.720 (+0.026) |
| 2 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | 23.608 (2) | 25.921 (1) | 25.227 (2) | 1’14.756 (+0.064) |
| 3 | 4 | Lando Norris | 23.649 (4) | 25.983 (4) | 25.163 (1) | 1’14.795 (+0.042) |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | 23.725 (6) | 25.935 (3) | 25.243 (3) | 1’14.903 (+0.067) |
| 5 | 63 | George Russell | 23.632 (3) | 26.101 (7) | 25.451 (7) | 1’15.184 (+0.050) |
| 6 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | 23.663 (5) | 26.063 (5) | 25.489 (9) | 1’15.215 (+0.143) |
| 7 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jnr | 23.793 (7) | 26.139 (8) | 25.301 (4) | 1’15.233 |
| 8 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | 23.87 (8) | 26.146 (9) | 25.474 (8) | 1’15.490 (+0.014) |
| 9 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | 23.884 (9) | 26.214 (13) | 25.411 (6) | 1’15.509 (+0.165) |
| 10 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | 23.895 (10) | 26.087 (6) | 25.565 (11) | 1’15.547 (+0.022) |
| 11 | 11 | Sergio Perez | 23.917 (11) | 26.24 (14) | 25.535 (10) | 1’15.692 (+0.014) |
| 12 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | 24.022 (14) | 26.211 (11) | 25.661 (13) | 1’15.894 (+0.121) |
| 13 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | 24.088 (15) | 26.211 (11) | 25.607 (12) | 1’15.906 |
| 14 | 18 | Lance Stroll | 23.952 (12) | 26.2 (10) | 25.84 (16) | 1’15.992 |
| 15 | 23 | Alexander Albon | 23.97 (13) | 26.489 (16) | 25.741 (14) | 1’16.200 |
| 16 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | 24.225 (20) | 26.471 (15) | 25.761 (15) | 1’16.457 (+0.169) |
| 17 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | 24.177 (17) | 26.651 (19) | 25.901 (17) | 1’16.729 (+0.125) |
| 18 | 2 | Logan Sargeant | 24.13 (16) | 26.66 (20) | 25.941 (18) | 1’16.731 |
| 19 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | 24.202 (19) | 26.649 (18) | 25.983 (19) | 1’16.834 |
| 20 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | 24.191 (18) | 26.563 (17) | 26.163 (20) | 1’16.917 |
Nonetheless, for the second time this year, McLaren have the second-fastest car in terms of outright pace. They also had that at Suzuka, but Imola showed they have taken a significant step forwards since then:
The Miami upgrade, combined with further revisions to their rear wing designed to suit tracks like Imola, lifted McLaren ahead of Ferrari.
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The home favourites have an upgrade of their own this weekend, but it wasn’t sufficient for their drivers to beat either of the McLarens on pace. They will, however, both line up ahead of Oscar Piastri following his grid penalty.
Teams’ performance
For the second weekend in a row, Aston Martin are far from their usual pace, despite introducing a significant upgrade package this weekend. Circumstances may have exaggerated this somewhat as Fernando Alonso, who is usually comfortably quicker than team mate Lance Stroll, had a poor Saturday following his crash in final practice and scruffy Q1 performance.
Field performance
This is F1’s fourth race weekend at Imola in the track’s current guise. Rain affected the running on its last two visits – and of course prevented the 2023 event happening at all.
This weekend has therefore provided the first indication of how the current generation of cars performs at Imola. They are within a few tenths of the performance seen in the final year under the old regulations, on a weekend also affected by rain.
However the lap times seen this year will also be influenced by Pirelli’s decision to bring one stage softer tyres than have typically been selected for Imola.
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2024 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix
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