Emilia Romagna Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Uralkali Haas F1 Team drivers Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin qualified 18th and 19th, respectively, for Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Round 2 of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship at Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari in Italy.

Mazepin and Schumacher exited qualifying at the checkered in Q1 having had three timed runs on new sets of Pirelli’s P Zero Red soft tires. Both cars were first on-track to start the session, Schumacher recording a 1:16.806 lap on his first outing with Mazepin logging a 1:17:806. The afternoon’s early running was brought to a brief halt thanks to a red flag with fellow rookie Yuki Tsunoda making contact with the barriers in his AlphaTauri. When the action resumed Schumacher posted a 1:16.348 on his second tour followed by a 1:16.279 on his third and final set of softs. Mazepin ultimately set his fastest lap, a 1:16.797, on his second set of tires.

Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes claimed pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Q3 – the British racer claiming his 99th career Formula 1 pole. His fast lap of 1:14.411 beat Sergio Perez of Red Bull Racing by .345 of a second.

Nikita Mazepin, Driver No. 9, Uralkali Haas F1 Team

“These qualifying sessions don’t fail to throw something new at you. Before we go out, we obviously expect to have a clean session, we have our run plan and we expect to manage our time, and then something happens early on and you’ve suddenly got less time. The stress element comes in brings the excitement. It was difficult to get the optimum lap time out there as this track was very cold today and it was important to build the tire temperatures. To do that, you need to go fast, and obviously other cars were slowing down. Loads happened but it’s an upward curve so far in my career, so I’m happy about that. I think we’re extracting the most there is for now in the car and building a good foundation.”

 

Mick Schumacher, Driver No. 47, Uralkali Haas F1 Team

“I was pushing a lot more, but unfortunately I lost out at the Variante Alta chicane – I think there was another one or two tenths in it really. But the good thing is we know we can improve, we’re not yet at the end. We saw improvement from Bahrain, so I’m really happy seeing that for us. We’ll wait and see what happens tomorrow in the race – long runs are always a different game really. It’s hard to predict what’s been happening through the free practices, everyone’s trying different things and set-ups. I’m mindful of how Bahrain went, so I’ll take that into consideration this weekend. I’m just looking forward to driving again tomorrow.”

 

Guenther Steiner, Team Principal, Uralkali Haas F1 Team

“Even if the result doesn’t look great, I think we’ve made good progress this weekend. FP3 was pretty good. I think everything is settling down a little bit. Qualifying, obviously, we finished 18th and 19th, but nevertheless we weren’t too far off the cars ahead of us – which is encouraging. Compared to Bahrain we saw that we made progress because, I wouldn’t say this one was a confusing qualifying session, but it was quite eventful with things like the red flag and so on. After that had happened the guys adapted pretty well and got on with their job. This is all about gaining experience and the next time it will be even better. At the moment they’re getting a lot of experience with different situations, all of which they need to have – they’ll be better prepared as a result of having gone through these things.”

 

Saturday Data

Event: Qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – Saturday April 17
Location: Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola
Layout: 4.909-kilometer (3.050-mile), 19-turn circuit
Weather: Partly Cloudy
Air Temps: 13 degrees Celsius (55.4 degrees Fahrenheit)
Track Temps: 27 degrees Celsius (80.6 degrees Fahrenheit)
Pole Winner: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:14.411) 
Result: Mick Schumacher qualified 18th, Nikita Mazepin qualified 19th 

Free Practice No. 3 Rundown

Schumacher: 16th overall (1:16.448), 22 laps completed
Mazepin: 20th overall (1:17.398), 23 laps completed
Fastest: Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing (1:14.958)

Q1 Rundown: 

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

Schumacher: 18th overall (1:16.279)
Mazepin: 19th overall (1:16.797)
Fastest: Valtteri Bottas of Mercedes (1:14.672) 

Q2 Rundown: 

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

Fastest: Sergio Perez of Red Bull Racing (1:14.716) 

Q3 Rundown: 

12-minute session featuring the Top 10 from Q2

Pole Winner: Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes (1:14.411)
Second: Sergio Perez of Red Bull Racing (1:14.446)